• Sneha Dey
• Shreya Sharma

In this paper an attempt is made to analyse the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) from the standpoint of Article 14, Article 19 and Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The Constitutional validity of the Act can be questioned on the grounds of it being an arbitrary and unreasonable classification that considers only certain minority communities, excluding the pathos of other adversely affected religious minorities. The amending act is against Article 19 by curbing the nation’s dissent and prohibiting peaceful assembly of people who raise their voices against the Act. This amending Act of 2019 is violative of Right to life and personal liberty, which is enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution Of India, as it denies basic human dignity to the religious minority communities who are excluded from the purview of the Act and are not entitled to seek citizenship of India in a manner similar to that provided for the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from the countries of Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan. This paper seeks to analyse the citizenship amendment act and draw an analogy to the condition existing in India to that advocated by eminent jurists in their literary works, by jurisprudential analysis. For the same purpose the works of eminent jurists like Thomas Hobbes and Cicero were taken into considerations. The contemporariness of Hobbes’s Leviathan and the importance of the consent of the masses is relevant when a law affecting their rights and liberties is being passed. Cicero’s distinction between ‘true good’ and ‘apparent good’ and how the present amendment is unable to achieve true good and failed to satisfy the needs of all the religious communities. Citizenship law defines a country’s political and constitutional identity. Laying down rules that determine membership in our political community only on the basis of one’s religious beliefs completely violates this principle.

Arbitrary, Citizenship, Constitution, Discrimination, Equality, Minorities

"TRAVERSING THE CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT, 2019 THROUGH THE CONSTITUTIONAL LENS ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 2, page no.727-735, February-2020, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2002318.pdf

"TRAVERSING THE CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT, 2019 THROUGH THE CONSTITUTIONAL LENS ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 2, page no. pp727-735, February-2020, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2002318.pdf