Supreme Court Defers Hearing On Petitions Challenging Citizenship Amendment Act By Four Weeks
The combined petitions will now be heard after four weeks, says Chief Justice of India SA Bobde.
The Supreme Court today deferred a hearing on more than 140 petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
A three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said today a larger constitution bench would consider requests to stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government from implementing the citizenship law.
The combined petitions will now be heard after four weeks, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said.
The bench will issue notices on all the new petitions which have been filed challenging the controversial Act, it said. To this, Attorney General KK Venugopal said that the government will need six weeks to file replies to all the petitions.
Petitioners, on the other hand, said the requests for interim relief must be heard sooner. “The matter is uppermost in everybody’s mind,” Bobde said, adding that the court will also conduct in-chamber hearing for some minor procedural issues.
The controversial Act seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before Dec. 31, 2014.
Petitioners including students, Muslim groups, lawyers and politicians say such discrimination on the basis of religion is not permitted under the Constitution. The Narendra Modi-led government has maintained the new law aims to give citizenship to persecuted minorities from the three neighbouring countries and the protests are the result of fear mongering by the opposition.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioners, said that the process of CAA should be postponed by three months as citizenship cannot be revoked once granted. The process has begun in Uttar Pradesh even though the rules haven’t been completely framed yet, he argued.
We are not asking for a stay on Citizenship Amendment Act. We are just seeking postponement of process under the Act. Heavens are not going to fall if it is postponed by a few months.Kapil Sibal, Senior Advocate
To this, the CJI suggested that the case may be heard by a Constitution bench. Bobde is likely to announce the Constitution bench in the next hearing.
The same bench had refused an urgent hearing on a plea seeking to declare the Citizenship Amendment Act as constitutional, observing that the country is going through difficult times.
“There is so much of violence going on. The country is going through difficult times and the endeavour should be for peace. This court's job is to determine validity of a law and not declare it as constitutional,” the CJI had said.