Supreme Court agrees to hear petitions against CAA and Citizenship (Amendment) Rules on March 19

The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will hear all petitions concerning the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 (CAA) and the recently notified Citizenship (Amendment) Rules of 2024, on March 19..A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said that all 190-odd petitions will be heard along with interlocutory applications (IAs) seeking stay on the Rules. "We will hear this on Tuesday. There are 190 plus cases. All of them will be heard. We will place full batch with the IAs," the Court said..The Court said this after the matter was mentioned today by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal for the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).IUML is one of the petitioners which have challenged the CAA. Sibal told the Court that when the CAA was passed in 2019, there was no question of stay since Rules had not been notified."But now just before (Lok Sabha) elections, the Rules have been notified. Please list it. If citizenship is granted now, then it cannot be reversed," he urged the Court. Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, however, pointed out that the Supreme Court is a Constitutional Court and the fact that the rules were notified before elections is irrelevant. "The petitioners will have no locus to say anything on citizenship," he added.However, the CJI agreed to list the matter on Tuesday, March 19."All parties with diverse points. If you can have some few lawyers to make arguments so that there is no overlapping. Of course we cannot stop anyone," he added..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 moved the Supreme Court to challenge the same. Subsequently, a large number of petitions came to be filed.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.But the Court had not stayed the law since the Rules were not notified which meant that the Act was in limbo. However, in a sudden move, the Central government on March 11 this year notified the rules, which effectively brought into force the CAA.This led to a slew of applications before the Court seeking a stay on the Act and Rules..There have been at least five applications filed so far seeking a stay on the Rules - by IUML, Assam Congress leader Debabrata Saikia, Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (a regional student outfit), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).