Supreme Court asks Centre to respond to petitions seeking stay on implementation of CAA

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, March 19

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to respond to petitions seeking stay on the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 for which rules were notified recently.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked the Centre to file its response by April 2 and posted the matter for hearing on April 9.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Indira Jaising and other counsel representing the petitioners urged the Bench to stay the implementation of the CAA in the meantime, saying once granted citizenship can be revoked only by courts.

There were 237 petitions against the CAA, including those filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Kerala Government.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta -- who opposed the petitioners' demand for stay on the CAA -- sought four weeks to file the Centre's response.

“Whether citizenship is granted or not petitioners will not be impacted,” Mehta said.

However, the Bench gave only two weeks to the Centre to file its response.

“Let submissions be made on the stay application limited to five pages till April 2. Let respondents file a fiv-page reply to the application by April 8,” the Bench said and posted the matter for hearing on April 9.

“We direct that the proceedings be listed after three weeks. File the reply only in one case. Response not needed in all the petitions. Reply can oppose the interim prayer. We will keep this on April 9,” it said.

Even as the Government on March 11 notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 to enable the persons eligible under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 to apply for the grant of Indian citizenship, 237 petitions challenging the amendment have remained pending before the top court since December 2019.

Passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, the CAA was notified on January 10. It relaxes norms for grant of Indian citizenship by naturalization to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist and Jain and Parsi victims of religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who came to India before December 31, 2014.

The top court had on January 22, 2020 refused to stay the operation of the CAA and the National Population Register (NPR) and said that ultimately a five-judge Bench might have to decide these issues. Acting on a transfer petition by the Central Government, it had restrained all high courts from passing any orders on the CAA.

The petitioners included Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, NGOs Rihai Manch and Citizens Against Hate, Assam Advocates’ Association and several law students.

Asserting that the CAA did not impinge upon any existing rights of citizens, the Centre had in March 2020 defended the law, saying there was no question of it violating constitutional morality which is not an “unruly horse”.

In an affidavit filed in the top court, the Centre said it won’t affect the legal, democratic or secular rights of citizens and requested the court to dismiss petitions challenging it.

“CAA does not impinge upon any existing right that may have existed prior to the enactment of the amendment and further, in no manner whatsoever, seeks to affect the legal, democratic or secular rights of any of the Indian citizens. The existing regime for obtaining citizenship of India by foreigners of any country is untouched by the CAA and remains the same,” it had said.

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