Apex Court also restrained all High Courts from hearing petitions on the CAA before it decided on those pleas.
AGENCIES / New Delhi
The Supreme Court today refused to put on hold the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which has attracted countrywide protests. It gave the Centre four weeks to respond to petitions on the law, making it clear that it would not grant any stay without hearing the government. The court also said a five-judge constitution bench will give an interim order on some 140 petitions on the law.
The Supreme Court also restrained all High Courts from hearing petitions on the CAA before it decided on those pleas.
Petitions linked to Assam and Tripura will be taken up separately as the problem with CAA in these two states is different from rest of the country, said the three judges.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde is hearing 143 petitions, mostly challenging the validity of the CAA.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, told the judges that the government had been given copies of around 60 of those petitions. He requested time to respond to the rest.
Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal urged the court to put on hold the CAA and postpone the National Population Register (NPR) for the time being.
The citizenship law, which makes religion a criterion for Indian citizenship, says non-Muslim minorities from Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan can become citizens easily if they fled religious persecution and entered India before December 31, 2014. Critics believe the CAA, along with the NRC or citizen’s list, will be used to target Muslims.
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.
President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on December 12, turning it into an Act.