Kozhikode: There is no way a state can deny the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) when it has already been passed by the Parliament, said Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Saturday, adding doing so would be "unconstitutional".
"If the CAA is passed, no state can say 'I will not implement it'. It is not possible and is unconstitutional. You can oppose it, you can pass a resolution in the Assembly and ask the central government to withdraw it," he said.
"But constitutionally saying that I won't implement it is going to be problematic and going to create more difficulties," said the former minister of law and justice on the third day of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF).
The Kerala government earlier this week moved the Supreme Court against the CAA, seeking to declare it "violative of the principles of equality, freedom and secularism enshrined in the Constitution".
It was the first state government to challenge the act and the Kerala Assembly was the first to pass a resolution against the law.
Following in the southern state's footsteps, the Punjab Assembly on Friday passed a resolution demanding to scrap the contentious law.
Several state governments, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra, have voiced their disagreement with the CAA as well as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).
Sibal explained what states mean when they say they will not implement the CAA.
"The NRC is based on the NPR, and the NPR is to be implemented by the local registrar. Now the local registrar has to be appointed at the level of the community in which that enumerations is to take place and those have to be the state level officers," he said.
"So what is being said is we would not allow a state-level officer to cooperate with the Union of India. That is what is being said, practically if this is possible or not I am not sure," explained Sibal. "But constitutionally, it would be very difficult for the state government to say I will not follow a law passed by the Parliament."
Describing the ongoing nationwide agitation against the CAA as a battle between a "leader" and the "people of India", the 71-year-old politician "thanked god" that it was the "students, poor, and middle-class" of the country leading the movement and not a political party.
"It is making an impact because globally and within the country, the people are realising this is not politics, this is real," he said.
"These are students, ordinary and poor middle-class people coming out. They are not connected to any political party."
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