The Article 14 of the Constitution allows Parliament to frame laws based on reasonable classification, Home Minister Amit Shah said while replying to the debate on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
"Article 14 of the Constitution does not bar Parliament to frame laws that are based on reasonable classification. And reasonable classification is there in this Bill," Shah told the Upper House.
Congress leaders Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, and P Chidambaram, while participating in the debate, had claimed that the CAB was in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.
The Home Minister said that the Bill does not aim to grant citizenship to any particular community, but to a class which fled Pakistan, Afghstan and Bangladesh due to religious persecution.
"We are not granting citizenship to any particular religion. We are taking them as a class consisting of people of every minority religion. We will grant citizenship to the class, who faced atrocities and a challenge to safeguard the dignity of their women," said Shah.
He further said that the Bill has been brought to the Parliament as it is in accordance with the reasonable classification mentioned in the Constitution.
Shah said that the need to bring the Bill goes back to the partition and Pakistan's failure to protect its minorities.
"Despite Kabil Sibal and Anand Sharma's insistence, I would once again say that the partition happened on the basis of religion. It was a blunder, which forced me to introduce this Bill," he said.
Shah said: "There would have been no need to introduce this Bill. This Bill is to address the problem created by the partition. Also, if any government would have solved the problem, there would have been no need for this Bill."
( With inputs from ANI )