Since 2019, more than two hundred petitions have been submitted before the highest court, contesting different sections of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
On Friday, the Supreme Court decided to consider arguments for a stay of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 until March 19.
Senior attorney Kapil Sibal brought up the issue, and Chief Justice DY Chandrachud responded by saying the case will be listed the following week.
Several CAA provisions that seek to grant fast-track citizenship to non-Muslim refugees who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan, have been challenged in a plethora of more than two hundred petitions filed with the top court since 2019. The law has been criticized for discriminating against Muslims based on their religion and for being arbitrary.
Opposition leaders criticized the Act’s announcement, arguing that the regulations were “unconstitutional,” “discriminatory,” and against the “secular principle of citizenship” that the Constitution upholds.
Additionally, opponents of the CAA said that the law violates the secular values contained in the Indian Constitution by excluding Muslims from its jurisdiction and tying citizenship to religious identity.
On the other hand, the Center has insisted that no national will lose their citizenship and that the CAA is about granting citizenship.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared on Thursday that the BJP-led government will never compromise on the CAA and that it will never be retracted in an interview with news agency ANI.
In an interview with ANI, the top BJP leader declared, “This is our sovereign right to ensure Indian citizenship in our country; we will never compromise on it and CAA will never be taken back.” “There is no other job for the opposition. They have a track record of acting one way while saying another. But Prime Minister Modi’s and the BJP’s histories are distinct. What the PM Modi or the BJP say is indelible. Modi has fulfilled all of his promises.”
