The Calcutta High Court on December 23 has issued an interim order to the West Bengal government, asking them to remove all anti-Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) and anti-National Register of Citizens(NRC) advertisements from public platforms. The court has directed the provisional order until the next hearing scheduled to be held on January 9, 2020.
As per reports, the court has also sought a detailed report from the state government over the claim of the petitioners that campaign against the CAA was carried out using public money.
The matter has been put up to January 9th for the next hearing.
Reacting to the court order, BJP MP and Union Minister Babul Supriyo said if WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had “taken advice from few educated MPs & MLAs she has in her party about the CM’s authority over matters like this, she would have known that citizenship is centre’s prerogative.
If only @MamataOfficial had taken advise from the few educated MPs & MLAs she has in her party about she (A CM) not having any authority, as per our constitution, to block an ACT that’s in the Central List & anyone other than Didi wud know that Citizenship is Centre’s prerogative pic.twitter.com/0aL3YAzFPk
— Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) December 23, 2019
Mamata Banerjee had been critical about the recently legislated Citizenship Amendment Act, asserting that she would not allow CAA and NRC to be implemented in her state West Bengal. A concerted campaign was run by the Trinamool Congress party to slam the Citizenship Law that aims to grant citizenship to persecuted non-Muslims from three neighbouring Islamic countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Posters were put up by TMC claiming that CAA and NRC will not be implemented in West Bengal. As many as 6 pleas were filed against the advertisements. Yesterday, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had accused Banerjee of splurging public money on the anti-CAA campaign. Terming them “unconstitutional”, he had demanded immediate withdrawal of the advertisements.
In addition, Mamata Banerjee was also criticised by the central ministers for demanding a UN-monitored referendum on NRC and CAA a few days ago following large-scale violent riots by Muslim mobs in her state.
