SC gives four more weeks to Centre to respond to over 144 petitions against Citizenship (Amendment) Act

Supreme Court refused to stay the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, and indicated to set up a Constitution bench to decide upon validity of the contentious law, which allowed fast-tracked citizenship to religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna declined to pass any interim order on the process being undertaken subsequent to the amendment in states, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.

"We are not going to pass any interim order today without hearing all the parties," the bench said.

The top court also restrained any High Court from entertaining a plea related to the CAA.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing as lead counsel for the petitioners, asked the court to postpone implementation of the CAA by two or three months. Once citizenship was granted, it can't be taken back, he said, highlighting issue of irreversibility.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, for his part, strongly opposed it. He said passing an order for postponing implementation of the statue would be as good as staying it.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, representing petitioners, also submitted that states had already started the exercise. In UP, 40,000 people have been counted for granting citizenship. He said the matter should be taken up urgently for passing orders.

K V Vishwanathan, also for petitioners, submitted a lot of people would be disenfranchised on the basis of the National Population Register exercise. He said there is anguish in majority and fear in minority community. Singhvi also shared concern saying there is chaos, insecurity and instability, and people my lose their right to vote.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, also for petitioners, submitted that the court may not stay the statute but issuance of naturalisation certificate for illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan must be stopped.

The court, however, preferred to grant four more weeks to the Centre to additional 80 petitions filed in the matter on a request made by the Attorney General.

During the hearing, a plea was for made for segregation of cases related to Tripura and Assam which the court allowed for facilitating a response from the Centre.

Various parties, including former Minister Jairam Ramesh, MPs Mahua Moitra, Asaduddin Owaisi, Manoj Jha, political parties DMK, Kamal Hassan's MNM, Kerala's IUML and different other organisations and individuals filed the petitions challenging validity of the CAA. As many as 144 petitions have been filed so far in the top court.

The courtroom, during the hearing, was jam-packed, making even difficult for arguing counsel like Salman Khurshid and Vikas Singh, to make their way to lecturn. The issue of overcrowding was raised by all counsel with the court agreeing to look for some solutions to it.

The top court had first on December 18 sought a response from the Union government in the matter.

The CAA amended the definition of illegal immigrants, belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian religions, from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, by allowing them fast track Indian citizenship in six years, if they had entered the country before December 31, 2014. Indian citizenship, under present law, is given either to those born in India or if they have resided in the country for a minimum of 11 years.

The petitioners questioned the exclusion of the Muslims from three neighbouring countries and also not incorporating people from other countries, saying it violated the fundamental rights and secularism, the basic structure of the Constitution.