Supreme Court To Hear Batch Of Pleas Challenging Constitutionality Of Citizenship Amendment Act Today

One of the petitioners said that the act violates the fundamental Right to Equality and intends to grant citizenship to a section of illegal immigrants by making an exclusion based on religion. 

Representational Image | File Image

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will today hear over 200 pleas which include a batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), reported news agency PTI. The petitions, challenging the validity of CAA, will be heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit. 

According to the list of businesses uploaded on the apex court's website, a bench comprising the Chief Justice and Justice S Ravindra Bhat has posted 220 petitions for hearing, including the lead plea by the Indian Union of Muslim League against the CAA, reported the news agency. 

Hearing the batch of pleas on December 18, 2019 the apex court had refused to put a stay on the operation of CAA but had issued notices to the Centre. 

The amended law seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain, and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014, sparking widespread protest across the country. 

The notice was issued to the Centre by the apex court and sought its reply by the second week of January 2020 but due to the Covid-19 induced restrictions, the matter could not come up for a full fledged hearing because of large numbers of lawyers and litigants involved in the matter. 

One of the petitioners in the case challenging the CAA, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), said that the act violates the fundamental Right to Equality and intends to grant citizenship to a section of llegal immigrants by making an exclusion based on religion.  

The plea by IUML filed through advocate Pallavi Pratap seeks an interim stay on the operation of the law.

Another plea file by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has said that the Act is a “brazen attack” on core fundamental rights envisaged under the Constitution and treats "equals as unequal".

"The impugned Act creates two classifications, viz, classification on basis of religion and the classification on the basis of geography, and both the classifications are completely unreasonable and share no rational nexus to the object of the impugned Act i.e., to provide shelter, safety, and citizenship to communities who in their native country are facing persecution on grounds of religion," the plea has said.

Several other petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Act including politicians like Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi. 

Other petitioners include those by Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGOs 'Rihai Manch' and Citizens Against Hate, advocate M L Sharma, and law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.