 Act, National Register of Citizens or National Population Register, and said the government is free to implement the measures, in a setback to those opposing them.){kind=link}
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant interim stay on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens or National Population Register, and said the government is free to implement the measures, in a setback to those opposing them.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices S.Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna concluded the hearing after granting the Centre four weeks to reply.
It asked the High Courts not to entertain any plea on CAA until the apex court finished deciding the matter before it.
The court, however, did not pass any order on the issue of referring the pleas against the measures to a larger bench, but showed strong inclination to do that. It is likely to take a decision in this regard in the next hearing.
Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General K K Venugopal opposed the suggestion of any stay on CAA. However, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal from the petitioners’ side said he was not seeking a stay on the Act, but merely a postponement of a process under it.
He suggested alternatively the NPR process could be postponed by three months till the bench decides on the matter and requested the court to intervene as the exercise is set to begin in April.
Venugopal informed the bench that there are 140 petitions before it out of which the Union government has been served notice for 60 of them.
On the submission of the Attorney General that petitions relating to Assam were not served on the Union government, Justice Bobde said no ex-parte order will be passed without serving the copies.
The court observed that it will consider hearing pleas related to Assam and Tripura separately from rest of the pleas, after the Centre filed its reply in the given window period of two weeks
It directed the Union government to file replies on all other CAA-related pleas (except those connected to Assam and Tripura) within four weeks.
The bench was hearing over 140 petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The central law, which has provoked weeks of protests throughout the country, gives persecuted minorities except for Muslims, from three neighbouring countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh– the right to apply for citizenship.
While a large number of petitions before the apex court calls the law discriminatory and unconstitutional, there are other pleas as well seeking a declaration that the Act is constitutional and hence, it must be implemented in letter and spirit.
The law, which came into force on January 10, has been challenged by several political parties and student organizations, including Congress, DMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, SFI and AIMIM.
During today’s proceedings, Sibal submitted that without even having rules framed, the Uttar Pradesh government has already started NPR exercise.
Another Senior Advocate AM Singhvi from petitioners’ side said many states have already started the NPR process.
The law which came into force on January 10 has been challenged by several political parties and student organizations, including Congress, DMK, CPI, CPIM, IUML, SFI and AIMM among several others.
Most of the petitioners challenging the law have submitted that the CAA discriminates people by making religion a criterion to apply for citizenship and this religious segregation blatantly violates Article 14, and consequently the basic structure of the Constitution.
A bench comprising Justices SA Bobde, BR Gavai and Surya Kant, had on December 18 refused to hear a petition challenging the law and stay its execution, saying that the country was going through “difficult times” and the court’s endeavour must be to ensure peace.
It had already issued notice to the Centre, seeking its response on the petitions challenging its legislation. The Centre had subsequently filed a transfer petition seeking similar petitions filed in the high courts of different states be transferred to the Supreme Court.
The new citizenship law, which amended the definition of “illegal migrants” contained in Section 2 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019.
Parliament added a proviso to Section 2 that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, shall not be treated as an illegal immigrant.