Dikhyaa Mohanty In response to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) challenge, the Supreme Court declined to issue any temporary injunction halting the enforcement of the regulations announced by the Center.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) and Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 were challenged in petitions that the Apex Court postponed until April 9 in order to give the Center time to submit a counter-affidavit in response to applications for stays. The hearings are scheduled for April 9 according to a directive from the bench consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra. The Bench declined to issue any temporary order delaying the citizenship award until then. The request to issue an order tying the award of citizenship to the resolution of the case was likewise denied by the Bench.
Strong arguments were given, but the court rejected them in order to postpone the citizenship award until after the next posting. The Solicitor General informed the Court that while the former is not a matter before the Court, attempts are being made to confuse it with the CAA issue. He informed the court that the current legislation only allows for citizenship to be granted.
At the outset, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Union submitted that there are 236 petitions challenging the CAA and that after the rules came, there are 20 IAs that have been filed for stay. “I need to file my reply. Everything will need to be collated. Three IAs I received yesterday late night. None of the petitioners as such are affected parties”, he submitted.
