Screening the nature of protest in states; SC dismisses petition on Jamia, AMU directing to approach HC

New Delhi, December 17: India, a land of Mahatma Gandhi, who professed non-violence as his tool to protest turned violent on Sunday over the Citizenship Amendment Act leading to which Delhi police took action against the protestors. With different states reacting and protesting differently on this citizenship law, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down petitions in Jamia, AMU protests and directed parties to approach the high courts. The Bench opined that it is not feasible to appoint one committee to look into the protests, given the nature of the matter and dispute and the vast area over which the matter is spread.

 

In its decision on the petition, the Supreme Court directed the petitioners to approach the High Courts within whose jurisdiction the incidents have occurred. The Supreme Court says that the High Court may appoint former judges of the Supreme Court to conduct inquiry after hearing the Union of India and the concerned state government. Hearing out the Jamia violence petition, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) asserted that the protests have been taken place as various places and the nature of the protest differs pertaining to the situations considering those states.

Pronouncing its order, the Supreme Court says, “Having regard to the nature of the matter and the vast areas where these incidents are said to have occurred, it is not feasible to appoint a single committee to go into matters in different states. This will entail collection of evidence from various states. We thus consider it appropriate for petitioners to approach the jurisdictional high courts.”

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday clarified all doubts framing a clear picture of the newly altered law. The Home Affairs Ministry asserted that no migrant from the six non-Muslim communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh “will become Indian citizen automatically.” A migrant should apply online and the competent authority would see whether he or she fulfilled all the qualifications for registration or naturalisation as Indian citizen.