Hawzah News Agency - (New Delhi - India) - A member of Iran's Guardian Council, Hadi Tahan Nazif, has called on India's Supreme Court to use all legal methods and procedures to pave the way for the repeal of a discriminatory law against Muslims in the South Asian country.

In the worst communal violence in decades in New Delhi on February 23, more than 50 people were killed and over 100 wounded as groups chanting Hindu nationalist slogans torched mosques and dozens of Muslim houses after looting shops and businesses.

The violence began amid widespread protests across India over a citizenship law that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government introduced in December last year offering citizenship to six religious groups from neighboring countries, specifically excluding Muslims.

Critics insist the law is discriminatory, coming in the wake of other severe government measures against the country’s Muslim population such as the withdrawal of autonomy for Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir.

There are 200 million Muslims in India, comprising more than 14 percent of the country’s population.

Critics of Modi’s government have blamed the anti-Muslim violence on members of the prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was crushed in local Delhi elections early last month. The party has embraced a militant brand of Hindu nationalism and its leaders have openly vilified Indian Muslims.

In a letter to Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde, Nazif said, "Our respected colleagues in the Supreme Court of India are expected to use the legal methods and procedures enshrined in the Indian Constitution and pave the way for repeal of this discriminatory law against Muslims."