New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Centre and decided to examine the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), but refused to put a stay on its operation. The top court has sought the Centre's response by the second week of January next year on a bunch of pleas challenging the CAA.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant fixed 59 petitions, including those filed by the Indian Union Muslim League and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, for hearing on January 22, next year. The bench also asked Attorney General K K Venugopal, representing the Centre, to consider using audio-visual medium to make citizens aware of the legislation. In response, Venugopal said the needful would be done by the government.
During the hearing, some lawyers appearing for petitioners sought a stay on the operation of the newly amended law. The Attorney General opposed the submission and said there are as many as four judgements which have held that a law cannot be stayed after being notified. "We are not going to grant a stay," the bench said, adding that arguments on granting stay can be advanced on January 22.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, who represented one of the parties, however, said there was no need to seek the stay on the operation of CAA as it has not come into force as several things like framing of rules under the law are yet to be done. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal also agreed with Dhavan's submission.
The plea filed by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, said that the Act is a "brazen attack" on core fundamental rights envisaged under the Constitution and treats "equals as unequal". Several petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, including by RJD leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi.
Several other petitioners include Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGOs 'Rihai Manch' and Citizens Against Hate, advocate M L Sharma, and law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.
The newly amended law seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim 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. There have been widespread protests across the country since the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the Rajya Sabha earlier this month. After President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the Bill, protests turned violent in the North-East with curfew being imposed in parts of Assam and Meghalaya.with agencies inputs