Respond to petitions for stay on citizenship rules, Supreme Court tells Centre

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, March 19

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to respond to petitions seeking a stay on the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, which were notified recently.

Despite repeated requests made by senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Indira Jaising and others on behalf of the petitioners, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud refused to stay the operation of the rules that facilitated the rollout of the CAA as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta clarified that the CAA did not take away anybody’s citizenship.

Asking the Centre to file its response to the stay applications, the Bench posted the matter for hearing on April 9.

“Just to satisfy your lordships’ conscience that there is no prejudice to the petitioners because none of the petitioners as such are affected parties, not that I am challenging the locus, it (CAA) does not take away citizenship of anyone. The law which they are seeking a stay on does not take away citizenship of any person,” Mehta said, seeking four weeks to respond to the stay applications. Sibal sought stay on the implementation of the CAA, saying once someone was granted citizenship it could be revoked only by courts. “The problem is if any process of citizenship starts and somebody gets citizenship then it would be impossible to reverse it for several reasons and these petitions will become infructuous.

Therefore, that process should not start,” Sibal argued. The Centre should make a statement that pending the hearing, no one will be given citizenship, Jaising told the Bench.

“They (Centre) are entitled to tell us that… give us a little time to file a counter. We may give them some time to file a response to the applications… we are not expressing any prima facie view…. We have to hear the petitioners, we have to hear the other side,” noted the Bench which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra.

237 pleas with court

There are 237 petitions and around 20 stay applications, including those filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Kerala Government challenging the amendment.

CAA doesn’t take away citizenship

The law which they (petitioners) are seeking a stay on does not take away citizenship of any person. — Tushar Mehta, solicitor general