The Supreme Court ordered to stay the implementation of controversial CAA in India
Last Updated on March 21, 2024 4:36 am
The Supreme Court of India has issued a notice to the central government to stay the implementation of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and Rules (CAA). The apex court has also given three weeks time to the central government sitting in New Delhi to respond to the notice.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud issued the notice on Tuesday. The other two members of the bench are Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra.
Four years after it was passed by the Parliament, the BJP, sitting in the central government, implemented the CAA across the country on March 11; But soon after that the opposition parties started strongly criticizing this move of BJP. The state governments of West Bengal and Kerala have already said that the law will not be implemented in the state. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and other southern states have also given an ultimatum to the BJP to suspend the Act.
A source in the Supreme Court said appeals for stay of the law have been pouring in ever since it ordered its implementation on March 11. So far at least 20 appeals have been filed in the Supreme Court. At least 237 petitioners have signed these appeals.
The hearing was on these appeals on Tuesday. In the hearing, counsel for the petitioners, Indira Jaisingh, sought an order that the central government stay the implementation of the CAA till the case is disposed of. Nizam Pasha, one of the members of the plaintiff’s legal team, said that Muslims in India have been suffering from insecurity since the passage of the law. There are fears among them that the BJP government wants to strip Indian Muslims of their citizenship and that the CAA is the first step in that plan.
However, countering this argument of the plaintiffs, India’s top law officer (Solicitor General) Tushar Mehta claimed that there is no way to deprive someone of citizenship through CAA.
After presenting the arguments and arguments of both sides, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the central government on ‘why the implementation of CAA will not be illegal’ and gave three weeks time to reply. Also, the Supreme Court fixed April 9 as the next hearing date of the case.
In 2019, the then BJP government passed the CAA in Parliament. According to this law, till December 31, 2014, the people of Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India and took shelter in the face of communal torture and persecution, will be given citizenship.
The first Citizenship Act was passed in India in 1955. According to that act, those who have come to India from abroad and have resided in India for 11 years out of the last 14 years and have stayed for at least 1 year, will be allowed to apply for Indian citizenship.
CAA has reduced the 11-year tenure to 5 years.