Reportedly three Chief Ministers in india kerala chief minister pinarayi vijayan, punjab chief minister Capt amarinder singh and West bengal chief minister mamata banerjee have declared that they will not be implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 in their states. Meanwhile a little before midnight on thursday, President ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
Accordingly senior advocate Aryama Sundaram tells TNM, because citizenship is not of a particular state, it is of the country of india "Citizenship is a central subject and as a central enactment, states are bound by it. So states cannot say that we cannot implement it". Perhaps Constitutional expert Subash Kashyap says the states have no role as far as the Constitution is concerned. Kashyap says “The rest of their role is their political stance and in order to counter such decisions or Acts, the states have the option of moving the courts of India".
Apparently "The executive power of every State shall be so exercised as to ensure compliance with the laws made by parliament and any existing laws which apply in that State, and the executive power of the Union shall extend to the giving of such directions to a State as may appear to the government of india to be necessary for that purpose,” Article 256 states. The states then are under the obligation of the Constitution to follow the Centre’s orders.
