No Legal Validity Of Resolution Against Citizenship Law: Kerala Governor

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has rubbished the resolution passed against it by the state assembly against the contentious citizenship law. Echoing Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, he said the resolution has no legal or constitutional validity. "Citizenship is exclusively a central subject so this actually means nothing," he said today.

"I have already made my views public that we should not spend government time and resources on issues which are beyond the jurisdiction of the government. But I respect if some people are of the view and they are making a demand to the Central government -- there I have no problem," he said. 

Earlier this week, the Left-led state government and the Congress-led opposition had come together to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which, critics say, provides for citizenship on the basis of religion and are skewed against Muslims.

The centre says the law is meant to speed-up the naturalization of six minorities (Muslims not among them) from three Muslim-majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who sought refuge in India after being persecuted.

Protests have swept the country since the law was passed earlier this month. In remarks directed at the nine states whose Chief Ministers have publicly refused to implement the citizenship law, Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had yesterday said there is "no escape" from the law.

"Of late, we are noting that a lot of state governments, due to votebank politics, are making public declarations that they won't enforce the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act)," the minister said. "I want to gently remind these parties, please get proper legal advice," he added.

"Article 245, 256 and other provisions state that parliament has the complete power to pass laws regarding naturalization and citizenship," the minister added.