No state can deny implementation of CAA, doing so would be unconstitutional, says Congress leader Kapil Sibal

Kozhikode: There is no way a state can deny the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) when it is already passed by the Parliament, said Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Saturday, who claimed that 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.

"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.