At least 220 applications against the CAA will be heard by a bench consisting of the Chief Justice of India, UU Lalit, and Justice S Ravindra Bhat.
On December 18, 2019, the Supreme Court held its initial hearing on the arguments made against the CAA. it was last heard on June 15, 202.
On December 11, 2019, the Parliament passed the CAA, which was met with demonstrations all around the nation. In effect CAA has started from January 10, 2020.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi, the Congress leader Debabrata Saikia, the Assam Advocates Association, the Kerala-based Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh, NGOs Rihai Manch and Citizens Against Hate, and law students are a few others who had filed the plea before the top court challenging the Act.
The Kerala government also brought a case before the Supreme Court in 2020, making it the first state to contest the CAA.
The law expedites the citizenship process for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians who sought shelter in India on or before December 31, 2014 after being persecuted for their faith in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, or Pakistan.
The top court had earlier issued notice to the Centre and declined to pass an interim order suspending the law without hearing the Centre.
The CAA is a “benign piece of law,” according to the affidavit the Centre submitted to the top court in March 2020, and it has no effect on any Indian citizen’s “legal, democratic or secular rights.”
The CAA does not breach any fundamental rights, according to the Centre, which also described the law as legitimate and stated there was no chance it would go against constitutional values.
According to the petitions, the Act, which liberalises and expedites the citizenship granting to non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, encourages discrimination based on religion.
Aside from violating secularism, Articles 21 (right to life), 15 (prohibiting discrimination based on race, caste, sex, or place of birth), and 19 (right to freedom), as well as the clauses governing citizenship and constitutional morality, the amendments have also been contested on a number of other grounds.
Featured Image: Wikimedia Commons
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