New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response from the Centre on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the controversial Citizenship (Amen-dment) Act that provides for the grant of Indian citizenship to illegal migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Christian and Parsi, but not Muslims.
Seeking response from the Centre, a bench of Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Surya Kant fixed January 22, 2020 as the next date of hearing when court would consider the plea for the stay of the Citizenship Amendment law which has been described by the petitioner as being contrary to the provisions of the Constitution.
As senior lawyer Kapil Sibal sought the stay on CAA, attorney general K.K. Venugopal said that there were four judgments of the top court which have said that a statute under challenge cannot be stalled as there was an assumption of constitutionality in favour of the statute passed by the Parliament.
However, senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan said that the question of staying the CAA does not arise at this stage as the date of its implementation has not been notified yet.
As the CJI said that the court would hear the matter on January 22, 2020, including the plea for the stay, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi rested the matter saying that they cannot ask for more at this stage.
There were 59 petitions listed before the court. A few of them were supporting the controversial law which has drawn flak from various sections of the society and fuelled protests with students belonging to Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University taking to the streets.
Broadly the petitioner opposed to the CAA have contended that it is contrary to the principle and promise of secularism in the Preamble of the Constitution, violative of the fundamental rights guaranteeing equality before law (Article 14), prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion, caste, language, color (Article 15) and the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
It is contended the Citizenship law under challenge violates the basic structure of the Constitution as secularism, equality before law, prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion and race.
