If something's on statute book, you have to obey: Salman Khurshid on Sibal's CAA remark

NEW DELHI: If something is on the statute book, you have to obey the law, else there are consequences, says former Union minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, while responding to Kapil Sibal's statement that the state cannot say 'no' to a law passed by Parliament.

"If the SC doesn't interfere, it'll remain on the statute book. If something is on the statute book, you have to obey the law, else there are consequences," Khurshid told ANI on Saturday.

Khurshid added: "It is a matter where the state governments have a very serious difference of opinion with the Centre as far as this (CAA) law is concerned. So, we would wait for the final pronouncement made by the SC. Ultimately, the SC will decide and till then everything said, done, not done is provisional and tentative."

Participating in the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) at Kozhikode on Saturday, Sibal had said that no state could say that it will not implement the CAA, as doing so will be unconstitutional.

"When you come to national politics, I think we all must stand together because this is national legislation. So, we should not be scoring political points. You must know that if the CAA is passed, no state can say 'I will not implement it'. That is not possible. That is unconstitutional. You can oppose it. You can pass a resolution in the Assembly and ask the Central government to withdraw it (to say please withdraw it)," said Sibal.

"But constitutionally to say that I will not implement it is going to be problematic and it is going to create more difficulty. So, what we need to do is politically get together, fight this battle and let the Congress party nationally lead the charge," he added.

CAA grants citizenship to the non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.