SC to hear 232 pleas on CAA issue on October 31 on reopening after Diwali

The Supreme Court is set to take up on Monday around 240 PILs, including a large batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), as the top court would reopen after a nine-day Diwali vacation.

As many as 232 petitions, mostly PILs on the issue of CAA alone have been listed before a bench of Chief Justice U U Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi on October 31.

Earlier, the bench led by CJI Lalit, who is scheduled to demit office on November 8, had said that the pleas challenging the CAA will be referred to a three-judge bench.

The 2019 amended law, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain, and Parsi communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have come to the country till 2014, has come in for stinging criticism by opposition parties, leaders and other entities over the exclusion of Muslims.

The lead plea on the issue was filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

In January 2020, the apex court made it clear it will not stay the operation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act without hearing the Centre.

The court had then also restrained high courts in the country from proceedings with pending petitions on the issue.

The IULML has claimed the Act violates the fundamental Right to Equality and intends to grant citizenship to a section of illegal immigrants by making an exclusion based on religion.

Several other petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the amended law, including by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, RJD leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi.

Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGO 'Rihai Manch', advocate M L Sharma, and law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.

Besides the pleas on CAA, the apex court, according to the list of businesses uploaded on its website, is also scheduled to hear five separate PILs filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, including those related to publishing draft legislations, setting up special anti-corruption courts in every district and for declaring the Law Commission as a "statutory body" and making appointment to post of chairperson and members.