AMN / NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court today said, it will hear pleas challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) after arguments in the Sabarimala matter are over.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said this after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal sought urgent hearing of CAA matters. Attorney General K K Venugopal told the bench that the Centre would be filing a reply in a few days.
The top court, on 18th of December last year, had decided to examine the Constitutional validity of the CAA while refusing to stay its operation.
On January 22, the CJI-led bench had given the Centre four weeks’ time to respond to as many as 140 writ petitions filed challenging the validity of CAA, according to LiveLaw. The bench had also indicated that the matter might be referred to a constitution bench.
The controversial Act grants fast-track citizenship to members of six non-Muslim communities who faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and who had entered India before December 31, 2014. It is being challenged on the ground that it offends Article 14 (equality before law) by bringing in religion-based discrimination. Some petitions also argue that the law violates the basic structure principle of secularism by linking citizenship with religion.
Protests have erupted across the country against the Act, which many fear that if seen in conjunction with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), could result in the disenfranchisement of Indian Muslims.