New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday, February 19, said that it will commence the final hearing on May 5 over 200 pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which triggered a wave of protests across India over allegations of anti-Muslim bias.
The CAA seeks to grant citizenship to 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. It explicitly excludes Muslims, which many legal experts argue violates Article 14 of the Constitution.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has denied that the law is discriminatory towards Muslims, saying that it seeks to protect people escaping religious persecution. Yet, it does not include persecuted Muslim victims such Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan, Hazaras in Afghanistan and Rohingya in Myanmar.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalaya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi issued procedural directions with regard to final hearings on the petitions, which are pending since 2019-2020.
The bench said it will hear petitioners, including the leader of the Indian Union of Muslim League (IUML), for one-and-a-half days and the Centre will be granted a day for advancing its arguments.
The CJI said the bench would conclude the hearing on the petitions on May 12. The bench asked the parties to file additional documents and submissions within four weeks.
The bench said it will hear the pleas related to the pan-India application of the CAA first and then take note of the petitions pertaining to Assam and Tripura later.
It said Assam’s problem is different from the rest of the country, as the earlier cut-off date for citizenship was March 24, 1971, which under the CAA was extended to December 31, 2014.
These matters were last listed before a bench on March 19, 2024, when it asked the Centre to respond to interim applications seeking a stay on the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, till the apex court disposes of the pleas challenging the validity of the law.
The apex court, however, refused to stay the operation of the Rules that would give effect to the CAA as sought by a battery of senior advocates representing the petitioners.
The Centre, on March 11, 2024, paved the way for the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, with the notification of the relevant rules, four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament to fast-track Indian citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
The president gave his assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, on December 12 that year, turning it into an Act.
Over 200 petitions were filed challenging the constitutional validity of the CAA.
Among those who have filed pleas are the IUML, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi.
(With PTI inputs)
