Indian Supreme Court is likely to hear — tomorrow (September 12, 2022) — a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) which seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.
While refusing to stay the operation of the law, the top court had on December 18, 2019, issued notices seeking the reply of the Indian Union government on the pleas, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
The amended CAA seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, and Parsis who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.
The top court had issued notice to the Indian government and had sought its response by the second week of January 2020. The government gave its reply in the same year.
However, due to Covid-19-induced restrictions, the matter could not come up for a full-fledged hearing in the top court as the matter involved a large number of lawyers and litigants.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), one of the petitioners which have challenged the CAA, said in its plea that it violates the fundamental right to equality and intends to grant citizenship to a section of illegal immigrants by making an exclusion based on religion.
Indian parliament cleared a bill amending the CAA on December 12, 2019. On the same day, the then-Indian president gave his assent to turning it into law.
Agencies