The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave four weeks to the Central government to respond to all 144 petitions filed in the court against the Citizenship Amendment Act and refused to pass any interim order. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice SA Bobde said asked the government to respond within a month. The petitions on Assam and Tripura will be heard separately.
Most of the petitions have demanded that the law – that came into effect on January 10 – be withdrawn. There are widespread protests across the country against the Act, which was passed in both houses of the Parliament in December 2019. Students and women across the country are leading some of the major protests. A number of petitions had asked for stay on the matter, but the Supreme Court has said only constitution bench will give interim orders. It is however, not clear whether the same bench will hear the matter concerning the 144 petitions after four weeks or it will be passed on to a constitution bench.
The petitions filed against the CAA say that the new law is against the basic structure of the Constitution and against the right to equality.
During the hearing today, Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi pointed out that Uttar Pradesh has already started implementing the law even without framing the rules.
The Centre has said earlier that the CAA will help grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from three Muslim majority countries – Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But according to critics, it discriminates against Muslims. With scores of petitions pouring in in various courts of the country and protests taking place across the country, the Supreme Court on January 9 had refused to hear a plea to declare CAA unconstitutional saying that the country “is going through difficult times” and the focus should now be on peace.
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