Geneva, Dec. 13 (PTI): The United Nations' human rights body on Friday voiced concern over India's new citizenship law, terming it "fundamentally discriminatory" in nature.
The new citizenship law seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslim persecuted religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"We are concerned that India's new Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 is fundamentally discriminatory in nature," UN human rights spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva.
"The amended law would appear to undermine the commitment to equality before the law enshrined in India's Constitution and India's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to which Indian is a State party, which prohibit discrimination based on racial, ethnic or religious grounds," he said.
The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi has said the new law provides expedited consideration for Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities already in India from certain contiguous countries.
It asserted that every nation has the right to enumerate and validate its citizenry, and to exercise the prerogative through various policies.
Laurence said although India's broader naturalisation laws remain in place, these amendments will have a discriminatory effect on people's access to nationality.
All migrants, regardless of their migration status, are entitled to respect, protection and fulfilment of their human rights, he said.
"Just 12 months ago India endorsed the Global Compact for Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration, which commits States to respond to the needs of migrants in situations of vulnerability, avoiding arbitrary detention and collective expulsions and ensuring that all migration governance measures are human rights-based," Laurence said in a statement.
The spokesman said while the goal of protecting persecuted groups was welcome, this should be done through a robust national asylum system that is premised on the principle of equality and non-discrimination.
He said it should apply to all people in need of protection from persecution and other human rights violations, with no distinction as to race, religion, national origin or other prohibited grounds.
"We understand the new law will be reviewed by the Supreme Court of India and hope it will consider carefully the compatibility of the law with India's international human rights obligations," Laurence said.
More than a dozen petitions were moved in the Supreme Court on Friday challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019.
The petitioners include Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, All Assam Students Union and other petitioners.
President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on Thursday night, making it into an Act.
The petitioners, which include Peace Party, NGOs 'Rihai Manch' and Citizens Against Hate, advocate M L Sharma and law students, have a common issue with the amended Act, which declares members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 and face religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
Moitra's counsel mentioned the plea before the Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and sought urgent hearing, but it was denied. The court asked her counsel to go to the mentioning officer. Her plea said that the Act is a "divisive, exclusionary and discriminatory piece of legislation that is bound to rend the secular fabric irreparably."
Jairam Ramesh claimed the Act promotes rather than checks illegal migration and is inextricably intertwined with the bizarre concept of a national National Register of Citizens, "as it does not even attempt to address the humanitarian and logistical issues of excluding millions and is clueless as to where to house them, where to deport them and how to deal with them."
The petition by NGOs 'Rihai Manch' and Citizens Against Hate, said the Act violates the fundamental rights, including that of equality before the law, and basic structure of the Constitution. The plea was filed through advocate Fauzia Shakil.
All Assam Students Union (AASU) moved the Court stating due to the continued influx of illegal immigrants in Assam, the Centre has failed to protect the rights of the indigenous people of Assam. AASU claimed the Act violates the obligations of the Centre under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
A writ petition was also filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) claiming that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) 2019, passed by the Parliament on Wednesday, violates Article 14 of the Constitution.
Reiterating that her government would not allow any NRC exercise or implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced statewide protests from Monday, saying that she will lead a rally from the base of B R Ambedkar's statue here.
"We told them (BJP government at the Centre) not to play with fire. They say they will forcibly implement CAA and NRC (National Register of Citizens). I would like to state categorically again that NRC and CAA won't be implemented in West Bengal.
"You can pass a law, but it is up to the state government to implement it. How can they enforce it? In West Bengal, our government won't do it. No NRC, no CAA," Banerjee told newspersons in Digha in Midnapore district.
The Trinamool Congress supremo said that she would cancel her proposed meeting in Delhi next week to be with the "people of the state" given the present situation.
The Jamia Millia Islamia University turned into a battlefield on Friday after police and students, who wanted to march to Parliament House to protest the Citizenship Amendment Act, clashed with each other prompting AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan to reach the spot to take stock of the situation.
Fifty students were detained following a clash between police and students after the protestors were stopped at the varsity gate and prevented from carrying out their march.
The students, who were baton-charged by police personnel, alleged that the police also used tear gas to quell their march. The students also resorted to stone-pelting. However, the protestors alleged that police resorted to stone-pelting first and students threw stones in response to the attack.
The police had cordoned off the road and protestors were seen climbing onto barricades. The University's gate was later closed.
Another student alleged that police resorted to pelting stones and then used tear gas that resulted in many students being injured.
Police, however, denied the allegations.
"Students started their march. We had placed barricades which they broke and tried to jump over them. Then they threw stones at us forcing us to use teargas shells. The students have been detained and taken to Badarpur police station," a senior police official present at the stop said.