Challenge to Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 before Supreme Court [LIVE UPDATES]

The Supreme Court is currently hearing the batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2009.

The matter is being heard by a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 received assent in the Lok Sabha on December 11, last year. The Rajya Sabha has also signed off on the controversial legislation the following day.

After notice was issued in 60 petitions challenging the validity of the Amendment in December 2019, the Central Government notified the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 on January 10, this year.

In the meanwhile, more petitions were filed in the matter before the Supreme Court. A number of petitions were triggered by the redefinition of the term "illegal migrant", to exclude Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan from its purview. Further, naturalisation standards for people from these communities have also been relaxed.

In effect, Muslims have been excluded from the purview of the Amendment. This has been challenged as being violative of Articles 14, 21 and 25 of the Constitution, apart from being against the basic principles of secularism.

Some of the petitions also challenge the Amendment in terms of violation of the Assam Accord of 1985, which had been introduced to control illegal immigration in Assam.

A petition has also been filed in support of the Amendment, and calling on the Supreme Court to act against those spreading misinformation about the legislation.