CAA: Indian Union Muslim League moves Supreme Court to stay Citizenship (Amendment) Rules 2024

A Kerala-based political party, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), has moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the implementation of Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024..The Central government had on Monday notified the rules which effectively brought into force the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 (CAA).The IUML (petitioner), which was one of the first parties to challenge the CAA before the top court in 2019, has now approached the Court to stay the Rules..The CAA was passed by the parliament on December 11, 2019 and got the President's assent the following day. On the same day, IUML had moved the Supreme Court to challenge the same. The CAA and Rules aim to grant citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.The CAA amends Section 2 of the Citizenship Act of 1955 which defines “illegal migrants”.It added a new proviso to Section 2(1)(b) of the Citizenship Act. As per the same, persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, and who have been exempted by the Central government under the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, or the Foreigners Act, 1946, shall not be treated as “illegal migrant”. Consequently, such persons shall be eligible to apply for citizenship under the 1955 Act.However, the law specifically excludes the Muslim community from the proviso, triggering protests across the country and a slew of petitions before the Supreme Court.The petitioners challenging the law have submitted that the CAA discriminates against Muslims on the basis of religion. Such religious segregation is without any reasonable differentiation and violates right to quality under Article 14, it has been contended.On December 18, 2019, the apex court had issued notice to the Union of India on that challenge. IUML had also pressed for a stay on the implementation of the Act. However, the Union government had told the Court then that since the rules had not been framed, the implementation of CAA would not take place.With the Rules being notified on Monday, the IUML has now moved the Court seeking a stay on the Rules.It has also prayed that the CAA itself be stayed. The petitioner has also sought directions to refrain from taking action against persons belonging to Muslim community who have been deprived of the benefit to apply for citizenship under the Rules..As per the plea, the rules notified yesterday create a highly truncated and fast-tracked process for grant of citizenship to persons covered under the exemption created by Section 2(1)(b) of the Act, which defines who will not be treated as an "illegal immigrant". This, the plea states, is manifestly arbitrary and creates an unfair advantage in favour of a class of persons solely on the ground of their religious identity, which is impermissible under articles 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution..The plea has been filed by advocates Haris Beeran and Pallavi Pratap.