Govt says CAA may not be under the scope of judicial review

|THE DEN|

Since citizenship and foreign policy are directly under the purview of parliament, the legitimacy of the 2019 Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) may not be subject to judicial review, the Union government said to the Supreme Court on Sunday. The government stated in its affidavit in response to a number of public interest litigations (PILs) that would be heard by the highest court on Monday that PILs cannot be used to contest the sovereign plenary power of parliament, particularly when it comes to citizenship.

The affidavit claims that immigration policy and the ability to exclude immigrants are aspects of the sovereignty of a nation-state that has been duly established. The policy, it said, has an effect on a State's foreign policy and, consequently, impacts its security system; as such, it would naturally fall under the purview of parliament.