SC to hear arguments on stay of CAA rules on April 9

March 19, 2024 02:58 pm | Updated 03:34 pm IST

The Supreme Court has said that it will hear arguments on the stay of the Citizenship Amendment Act rules on April 9 after the Centre sought time to file its response to multiple applications seeking the stay.

The Centre has refused to give a statement in Supreme Court that there will not be any citizenship granted under CAA till the next apex court hearing on April 9.

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Petitioners have pressed for the statement and urged the court to pass a judicial order if the Centre is not willing. A bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said there was no infrastructure, as required under the CAA Rules, in place for grant of citizenship to start.

Petitioners say the matter is too serious for the court to bank on a “hope-and-trust jurisprudence”.

“It (CAA) does not take away citizenship of any person,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told the bench, also comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

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 inputs from PTI)