Supreme Court to hear over 140 petitions related to CAA

The Supreme Court would on Wednesday take up about 144 petitions related to the validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna would consider the petitions filed by 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.

The court had on December 18 sought a response from the Union government on pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 but refused to grant any stay on the statute, which has triggered massive protests across the country.

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.