GUWAHATI, May 10 - The Assam Andolon Sangrami Manch today filed an application before the Supreme Court of India for initiating suo-moto contempt case against BJP national president Amit Shah for making misleading comments related to the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Shah, in his recent political rallies and press conferences in West Bengal, had reportedly made statements that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 would come first and then the NRC for the entire country so that Hindu infiltrators could be incorporated in the NRC by giving them citizenship.
The application filed by the Manch through Kaushik Choudhury, advocate-on-record, Supreme Court, contended that Shah�s statement has given a wrong message to the people of Assam and that it is an onslaught on the judicial process, since he had not excluded Assam (being updated under the Supreme Court) from his statement vis-�-vis the NRC.
�The statement made by Shah is creating doubt and confusion over the process of updating the NRC, which is being monitored by the apex court. It is a deliberate interruption to the apex court�s judicial process for the narrow election gain for his party, especially when the Supreme Court has fixed July 31 as the final date for publishing the final NRC,� the application stated.
Former Chief Minister of Assam Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is the chief advisor of the Manch.
The application further stated that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 has widely been discouraged and protested by the people of Assam and when the issue of passing any legislation has not even arisen as on date, it was absolutely improper to make a statement that the Citizenship Amendment Bill will come first and then NRC in all over India.
�Against the same statement agitations have already started in the State of Assam and various public figures have raised voice against the statement and everyone has pointed out the fact that the Supreme Court is monitoring the process of NRC and as such political statement in a pending process is improper and in fact is a contempt of Court,� added the statement.
The application urged the court to take appropriate actions against Shah if it finds that the statements are contemptuous in nature and if the same has tried to undermine the status and power of the apex court by creating confusion in the minds of people by speaking on an issue which has strictly been dealt by the Supreme Court.
