The family of a four-year-old Muslim girl in West Bengal, who was worshipped as the human form of Goddess Durga, has moved the Supreme Court against the amended citizenship law, calling it discriminatory.

Fatima's maternal uncle, Md Ahmed, filed the petition in the top court on Wednesday.

"The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), as well as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), will divide the society. We are all citizens of this country. How can people, especially the poor, provide proof of their origin after so many years?" the businessman at Kamarhati in the North 24 Parganas district asked.

"Women across India will be the worst affected by NRC. They are married off early and most of them face discrimination. Few families buy a property or register a business in the name of women. Hence, showing legal documents is a challenge for them," Ahmed argued.

Ahmed's petition is one of the more than 140 similar pleas filed before the top court till Wednesday. The Supreme Court had on Wednesday refused to stay the implementation of CAA.

"Ahmed's petition has been listed for hearing. The court said all the petitions will be heard together by the Constitution bench," said former advocate general and ex-mayor of Kolkata, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who is representing Ahmed.

Kumari Puja

Fatima, whose father Muhammad Tahir runs a grocery store near Fatehpur Sikri in Agra, was worshipped as the human form of the goddess by Tamal Dutta, an engineer at Kamarhati municipality, and his lawyer wife Moushumi during Durga Puja in October last year.

The couple decided to follow the example set by Swami Vivekananda in 1898, 121 years after he worshipped the daughter of a Muslim boatman in Kashmir. Fatima's mother Bushra Bibi said she felt honoured.

HT reported the rare incident weeks before the puja took place. The puja was later covered by a wide section of the media.

Kumari or Kanya Puja is the worship of girls who have not attained puberty and is a part of the Navratri celebrations in central and northern India.

Although it is performed in many homes and temples during Durga Puja in Bengal, no family is known to have worshipped a Muslim girl in recent history, priests, HT spoke to, had said.

In 1901, Vivekananda started the ritual during Durga Puja at Belur Math in West Bengal's Howrah district. It has been continuing since then and draws millions of devotees.

Interestingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent a night at Belur Math when he was in Kolkata on January 11 and 12.

"Many youths are being misguided. CAA is not about taking away citizenship but to give citizenship. CAA is only an amendment for those persecuted in Pakistan... Should we send these people back to die in Pakistan?... Is this noble work or not?" Modi had asked during his address at Belur Math.

The opposition took jabs at the Prime Minister, alleging that he used the Math and Bengal's feelings for Vivekananda to propagate his political agenda.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) state unit general secretary, Sayantan Basu, said the state has millions of illegal migrants.

"People who are filing petitions are refusing to admit that neither Hindu refugees nor illegal Muslim migrants are citizens of India," Basu said.

"There are at least 10 million illegal migrants in Bengal and they are scared of being exposed. The Centre will identify them. They comprise the main vote bank of Trinamool Congress," he added.

The amended citizenship law will allow the government to fast-track Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from six religions who came to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014.