Apex Court refuses stay on Citizenship Amendment Act, Centre gets 4 weeks to reply
By: – Syed Ali Taher Abedi
The Apex Court on Wednesday refused to pass any interim order to stay the operation of Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) till it hears the Central government on the pleas challenging the validity of Citizenship Amendment Act.
A three judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde,Justice S.Abdul Nazeer and Justice Sanjeev Khannna began hearing around petitions related to the CAA including petitions challenging the constitutional validity of CAA and transfer petitions filed by the Central Government.
Attorney General K.K.Venugopal told the bench that the government wanted time to respond to the pleas which have not served on it.Senior Advocate Kapil Sibbal urged te bench to put on hold operation of the CAA and postpone exercise of the National Population Registrar (NPR) for the time being.The Supreme Court said it will not grant any stay on CAA without hearing the Centre on the matter. The Court gave Narendra Modi government four weeks’ time to submit its respond.
Senior Advocate A.M Singhvi submitted that the Utter Pradesh Government had “marked” people as doubtful citizens two weeks ago. “The process of granting citizenship under CAA is already underway,” he said.
Shyam Divan Senior Advocate contended that the final certificate of citizenship by naturalization to illegal migrants should be stayed during the pendency of the case in the court. Indian Citizenship once granted cannot be revoked if the challenge to the CAA succeeded in the Court, he said.
However the CJI has indicated that the Court would give due importance to petitions concerning the impact of CAA in border States such as Assam and Tripura. These cases may be segregated and heared.He, however, said all the petitions on the CAA would be subject to a common final decision.
Senior Advocate Vikas Singh said that the CAA violated the Assam accord of 1985, which stipulated that any foreigner who entered the State after the cut-off date of March 24, 1971, irrespective of their religious affiliation, would be deported; the cut-off date in the CAA is December31, 2014.
The petitioner argued that a law that welcomed “illegal migrants” into India selectively on the basis of their religion was against the principles of secularism, right to equality and dignity of life enshrined in the basic structure of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court has also hinted that matter may be referred to the larger constitution bench.
