“Scrutinising the Constitutionality of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the potential impact of the NPR and NRC”.
Date: 25th January, 2020
The Constitutional Society of National Law University Odisha, under the aegis of Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) Shri Krishna Deva Rao and the Registrar (I/C) Dr. Yogesh Pratap Singh, successfully organized its 5th Academic Guest Lecture to be given by Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record, Mr. Shadan Farasat on the topic ‘Scrutinizing the Constitutionality of Citizenship Amendment Act and Potential Impact of NPR and NRC’.
Ever since the Citizenship Amendment Act has been passed by Lok Sabha, there has been a huge uproar regarding the constitutionality of this legislation. As law students, it is in our best interests to grasp as to how the constitutionality is challenged and Adv. Shadan Farasat, who himself is one of the petitioners against the Amendment, agreed to help the CLS in furthering its goal of providing that much-needed clarity to the NLUO fraternity in these tumultuous times.
The lecture started with a brief set of facts surrounding the history of Citizenship Act and the concept of illegal migrants. Then, the arguments of the government were covered by the esteemed guest which have been given in the Parliament, various clarifications which have been sought as this issue has encompassed a significant number of criticisms. Adv. Farasat then went in detail about the sources of persecution and how religious persecution is just a subset of persecution and atrocities faced by the people. He then went on to the specificity in the classification made by the legislation and contended that even with the clarifications provided by the government, there is not a substantial rationale which holds good in both: selection of the 3 countries and selection of the 6 communities in the legislation. From thereon, he focussed his lecture upon the doctrine of reasonable classification and how the intelligible differentia provided by the government does not hold good. He discussed the action of NRC and NPR, how they are both linked. He mainly emphasised upon the possible repercussions which these activities might have on the people and the dire consequences which even a marginal error can create.
The floor was then opened for questions and a lot of interesting perspectives were raised by the faculty and students. The circumstances regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act, effect on indigenous communities and how it is dealing with people already in the territory of India were some of the questions asked in detail by the students and faculty of NLUO.
Adv. Shadan Farasat was extremely eloquent in his expression, and was very welcome to any and all questions raised by members of National Law University Odisha. This lecture was widely appreciated as it is extremely rare that an active participant regarding a given issue in litigation process is accessible to the students to obtain further clarity on that standpoint.
