The government of Amarinder Singh in Punjab is expected to introduce a resolution in the state Assembly on Friday demanding repeal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The move would make Punjab the second state in the country after Kerala to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Act.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had hinted at the move when asked about a possible resolution. Amarinder told mediapersons, "Wait till tomorrow." Earlier in the week, the Amarinder Singh government had declared "it will proceed according to the will of the House" on the issue of Citizenship Act, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).
Amarinder Singh had said his government would not allow the implementation of "brazenly divisive CAA". The chief minister has earlier said the Citizenship Act, particularly when coupled with the NRC and NPR, "violated" the Preamble to the Constitution.
The Hindu reported that the introduction of the resolution against the Citizenship Act had been part of the list of business for Friday released by the Assembly.
The Hindu reported that the resolution states, “The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, enacted by Parliament has caused countrywide anguish and social unrest with widespread protests all over the country. The CAA seeks to negate the very secular fabric on which the Constitution of India is based... It is divisive and stands for everything opposed to a free and fair democracy, which must enshrine equality for all... The ideology behind the CAA is thus inherently discriminatory and is as far away as it can be from being a humanitarian measure..."
Meanwhile, The Print reported Punjab could challenge the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Act in the Supreme Court. The Kerala government had approached the Supreme Court on January 14, challenging the validity of the Citizenship Act.
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“I have been asked by the chief minister to look at the possibility (of approaching the Supreme Court). We would also be taking similar grounds as Kerala under Article 131 of the Constitution,” Punjab Advocate General Atul Nanda told The Print.
The plan to introduce a resolution and potentially move the Supreme Court would mark an aggressive approach by the Congress to challenge the Citizenship Act. The party had been perceived as being diffident on challenging the Citizenship Act, unlike the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala.
