No stay on CAA, Supreme Court grants Centre 3 weeks' time to respond to pleas

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Centre's response to the pleas seeking a stay of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 within three weeks.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud posted the matter for resumed hearing on April 9.  Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that he needed four weeks to file a reply to the 20 applications.

These applications have sought a stay on the Rules till the apex court disposes of the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. "It (CAA) does not take away citizenship of any person," Mehta told the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

Kapil Sibal and Harris Beeran, representing the Muslim League, had urged for an expedited hearing on the matter. Sibal noted that although the law was passed in 2019, the accompanying rules were not notified then, leading to the court's denial of a stay. 

Sibal criticized the government's swift implementation of the CAA amidst Lok Sabha elections. He referenced the petition filed by the Indian Union Muslim League in the Supreme Court, contesting the Citizenship Act's enforcement. The petition alleges religious discrimination, asserting it violates Article 14.

The Centre had on March 11 paved the way for the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, with the notification of the relevant rules, four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament to fast-track Indian citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
(With PTI inputs.)