The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday refused to pass any interim order to stay the operation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) till it hears the Central government on the pleas challenging the validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde granted four weeks time to Centre to file reply on the pleas. The bench headed by SA Bobde also directed all the high courts to not pass any order on CAA. The court also said that it will separately hear the cases challenging the validity of the Act that got notified on 10 January pertaining to Assam and Tripura.
The court hinted at setting up a larger five-Judge Constitution Bench to hear the case and the matter will be listed after five weeks for interim orders.
As many as 143 petitions were filed, including those filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, challenging the constitutional validity of the Act. Some pleas had sought a stay on the implementation of the legislation.
The SC on 9 January had dismissed a plea that sought CAA be declared constitutional.
Demanding an interim stay, IUML in its petition had alleged that CAA was against the basic structure of the Indian Constitution as it intends to grant citizenship to a section of illegal immigrants by making exclusion on the basis of religion. It said that the Act was discriminatory against Muslims as it extends benefits only to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians.
CAA seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.
Calling CAA a “brazen attack” on core fundamental rights, Ramesh in his plea had said the Act treats “equals as unequal”.
“The impugned Act creates two classifications, viz, classification on basis of religion and the classification on the basis of geography and both the classifications are completely unreasonable and share no rational nexus to the object of the impugned Act i.e., to provide shelter, safety, and citizenship to communities who in their native country are facing persecution on grounds of religion,” the plea added.
The Act has triggered nation-wide protests, with people from all walks of life voicing their opposition, especially in Delhi.
Following the protests in the national capital, the lieutenant governor of Delhi on 18 January passed an order authorizing police to place the city under the National Security Act (NSA) for three months. The union home ministry, on the other hand, has downplayed the situation, saying that it was “a routine affair and the notification was renewed from time to time.”
