Supreme Court hears challenge to Citizenship Amendment Act, CAA Rules: LIVE UPDATES

The Supreme Court of India is hearing a batch of around 236 petitions concerning the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) and the recently notified Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is hearing the matter.

The matter was listed today following a mention on March 15 by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) - one of several petitioners which had challenged the CAA back in 2019.

The CAA amends Section 2 of the Citizenship Act of 1955 which defines “illegal migrants."

With this amendment, the path to Indian citizenship for persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan have been eased in certain scenarios.

The stated objective of the amendment was to protect religious minorities who may be facing persecution in neighbouring countries.

The move, however, was challenged before the top court particularly since the protection measures excluded those from the Muslim community.

On December 18, 2019, the apex court had issued notice to the Union of India on that challenge.

However, a mention was made by the IUML last week to list the matter on priority in the wake of the Central government's March 11 decision to notifiy the CAA 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).

Live updates from the hearing today feature here.