Citizenship Amendment Act: Supreme Court issues notice to Centre, seeks response by April 9

Citizenship Amendment Act: Supreme Court issues notice to Centre, seeks response by April 9

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to Union government on 20-odd applications seeking stay of implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act and the Rules, which was notified on March 11, 2024. SC seeks response from Centre in three weeks and would take up hearing on April 9, 2024.

Hearing a batch of 200 petitions seeking a stay on CAA 2019, petitioners made repeated requests to stay process of granting of citizenship to persecuted communities from Islamic states of Afghanistan, Pakistanand Bangladesh till the SC decided stay application.

As a last resort, Indira Jaising argued that at least the court should stay all citizenship granted in the meantime would be subject to court’s decision. But the SC politely stepped around the plea saying infrastructure for grant of citizenship not yet in place.

The petitions were heard by a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

The plea was filed by Indian Union Muslim League, that sought protection for Muslims under the Act. IUML urged the court to allow Muslims to apply for citizenship and requested a report on their eligibility. A key challenger of CAA since 2019, argues that it institutes a biased and discriminatory citizenship-granting process solely based on religious identity, which they deem arbitrary.

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Another plea by the Democratic Youth Federation of India also seeks a stay on the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.

Asaduddin Owaisi, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief, has also petitioned against CAA. His petition seeks directives to halt processing of citizenship applications under Section 6B of the Citizenship Act, 1955, until the ongoing legal proceedings are concluded. Owaisi’s intervention adds another dimension to the diverse array of voices engaged in the legal scrutiny of the contentious legislation.

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These petitions urge the court to instruct the Centre to suspend the implementation of the rules until it adjudicates on the constitutional validity of CAA.

Enacted by the Centre and ratified by Parliament in 2019, CAA rules seek to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before December 31, 2014.

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