SHILLONG/ GUWAHATI: The Opposition Congress and the pressure groups in the state have expressed disappointment after the Supreme Court refused to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.
The top court on Wednesday refused to stay the implementation of the CAA and a formal notice was issued admitting 59 petitions filed by people from all walks of life and faiths to parliamentarians to retired high commissioners and service officers to lawyers, students, activists, professional associations to opposition political parties cutting across regions and ideology and NGOs.
The court said it would hear the petitions on January 22.
Reacting to this, senior Congress leader Ampareen Lyngdoh said that the party is disappointed as they were expecting that some interim judgment would be pronounced.
She, however, said that it is the apex court of the country and they will look forward for an impartial hearing when the court opens in January.
Pointing that the protests against the CAA are now spreading across the country, Lyngdoh said that after an in-depth analysis of the content of the legislation, it is actually being realised by the people of India.
Lyngdoh, who was attending an anti-CAB protest organised by the Congress party on the premises of State Central Library on Wednesday, said that many quarters are protesting along with those affected communities.
“There is a voice across India and it is not just about small communities feeling threatened about their proximity to one of the countries which is Bangladesh but also about other areas and underlying challenges have put in bad light the constitutional rights of the people of this country. The secular democratic state does not violate any article enshrined in the constitution,” she said while adding that the party has faith in the judiciary.
The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisations (CoMSO), an umbrella body of social organisations and pressure groups of the state, has decided to file a writ petition challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act in the Supreme Court while simultaneously holding peaceful protests against the contentious legislation in the state.
CoMSO chairman, Robert June Kharjahrin said the writ petition would soon be filed before the apex court against the legislation as it posed a threat to the secular fabric of the entire country.
“We have no other option left but to move the apex court as CAA would not only bring foreigners to the state but threatens the secular fabric of the country. Such an anti-Constitutional legislation, or for that matter any law that threatens secularism, has to be challenged out-rightly,” Kharjahrin said.
He said it was disappointing that the court has not given any stay to the operation of the Act as they had expected that there will be a stay.
He, however, hoped that when the court resumes its hearing, it will stay the Act as it is communal in nature and against the very basic concept of the constitution of India.
