No Immediate Stay on CAA, next hearing will be on April 9: SC
The Supreme Court has scheduled the hearing for challenges to the newly notified Citizenship Amendment Rules and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, for April 9.
Hyderabad: The Supreme Court has scheduled the hearing for challenges to the newly notified Citizenship Amendment Rules and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, for April 9.
The court’s decision comes in response to a batch of over 200 pleas seeking a stay on the implementation of the CAA, with the Centre issued notice and asked to file a response.
During the proceedings, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud outlined the timeline for submissions, limiting stay applications and responses to 5 pages each by April 2 and April 8, respectively. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, requested time to respond to the 236 petitions and numerous applications filed.
Senior advocate Indira Jaisingh, representing the petitioners, urged Mehta to assure that no citizenship would be granted under the CAA until the petitions are decided. However, Mehta declined, stating such a statement cannot be made. Jaisingh further requested the court to specify that any citizenship granted would be subject to the outcome of the case. However, the Chief Justice noted the government’s lack of infrastructure to initiate the process.
The petitions have been pending due to the delayed notification of rules to implement the CAA. The primary contention is that the law excludes Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan from eligibility for citizenship, allegedly violating the constitution.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), leading the opposition against the CAA, filed an application on March 12 to halt its implementation, emphasizing that the government should not have waited over four years to implement it.
Recently, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Centre notified the rules for implementing the contentious CAA, 2019, more than four years after its passage in Parliament on December 11, 2019. The law aims to grant Indian nationality to persecuted religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who arrived in India until December 31, 2014.
