The Supreme Court, that convened after a nine-day Diwali break, said it would hear the 240 plus PILs, including a large batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA. The top court has listed the matter to be heard by an appropriate bench for December 6.
A bench comprising of Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi granted three weeks time to Assam and Tripura to file their responses. The court also granted two weeks time for filing the written submissions.
Earlier, the bench headed 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 CAA law, 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.
The amendment has faced 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 or IUML.
Several protests were held across the country with many calling the amendment divisive and against Indian pluralism.
In January 2020, the apex court made it clear it will not stay the operation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act without hearing the Centre’s arguments.
Seeking a response from the central government in four weeks to a batch of pleas challenging the CAA, the top court had 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.
However, the Centre on Sunday urged the Supreme Court to dismiss all the pleas challenging the validity of the CAA, stressing that the law does not encourage “illegal migration” in Assam or any future influx of foreigners in the country.
It also vehemently defended the exclusion of certain areas of Assam and other Northeastern states from the application of the CAA, saying it has been done to “protect the ethnic/linguistic rights” of the natives and this was “not discriminatory”.
It is a “focused law” that grants citizenship only to members of six specified communities who came on or before December 31, 2014 and does not affect the legal, democratic or secular rights of any Indian, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a detailed 150-page affidavit.
The affidavit further said that the law is “narrowly tailored” and only those migrants “belonging to the six specified communities from the three countries who had entered into India on or before December 31, 2014 will be covered by the provisions of this Amendment Act.”
“These migrants are already living in India. The Amendment Act does not have any provision which provides for the grant of citizenship to such migrants who would have come after December 31, till date or on any future date. It is respectfully submitted that the CAA, 2019 does not in any way encourage illegal migration into Assam,” it said.
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