The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights filed a petition with the Supreme Court against the newly enacted Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
The UNHRC has moved an intervention application in the Supreme Court over the CAA. This means that the global human rights body wants to be made a party in the existing pleas filed against the CAA in the SC.
Reacting to the move, India maintained that the CAA is an “internal matter”. The Ministry of External Affairs asserted that the CAA is an internal matter of India and concerns the sovereign right of the Indian Parliament to make laws.
This rare intervention by the body drew a strong response from the Ministry of External Affairs which argued that the law was an internal matter of India.
The United Nations Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet on February 27th, 2020, expressed great concern over the Delhi violence which erupted over the contentious Act.
“The Act adopted last year by India’s Parliament was of great concern. I am concerned about reports of police inaction in the face of attacks against Muslims by other groups, as well as previous reports of excessive use of force by police against peaceful protesters,” she said.
Appealing the political leaders to prevent the violence which has claimed more than 40, she said, “This has now widened into broader inter-communal attacks.”
The communal violence over the amended Citizenship Act in Northeast Delhi has claimed more than 40 lives so far and left over 200 people injured.
It may be mentioned that Assam witnessed a massive protests following the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill on December 11th, 2019. The Act seeks to grant Indian citizenship to the people belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Christian, Buddhist and Parsi, who have become victims of religious persecution and entered into India on or before December 31st, 2014 and lived without documentation.
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