Thiruvananthapuram: After the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that they would not allow the implementation of the CAA in their states. However, the reality is that constitutionally, states cannot abstain from implementing the CAA. Such efforts are unconstitutional and legally unsustainable.
Can states refuse to implement CAA?
According to the Article 246 of 7th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, there are three lists: the Union list, State list, and Concurrent list. It specifies which subjects come under the jurisdiction of the Central and State governments.
• The Union list includes subjects such as defence, foreign affairs, census, railways, and citizenship. It also stipulates that only the Parliament has the right to legislate on the matters mentioned in the Union list.
• Police, health, forests, and roads are the subjects included in the State list. Similarly, the state governments have the right to make laws regarding the subjects in this State list only.
• Concurrent list is taken care of by both Union and State. As per the 7th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, some of the subjects that come under the Concurrent list are Trade unions, Education, Marriage, Succession, Forest, and Adoption. Citizenship is not mentioned in the Concurrent list.
• Constitutionally, Indian states can’t refuse to implement citizenship laws framed by the central government as the subjects fall within the domain of the Union list, according to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
• Parliament has the exclusive right to legislate on matters relating to citizenship. Therefore, the State governments cannot override the CAA laws passed by the central government.
• The 7th schedule under Article 246 of the Constitution segregates the powers between the parliament and the state legislatures. It also states that matters specified in the Union List, including citizenship, are solely within the jurisdiction of the Parliament.
Hence, states are bound by the laws enacted by the Parliament, and any attempt to refuse the implementation of the citizenship law would stand as unconstitutional and legally untenable.
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