On Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to stay the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the rules till next hearing on April 9.
Supreme Court said, ‘The government does not even have the infrastructure to implement the CAA rules, so how will they grant any citizenship till April 9’.
The apex court issued notices in the cases where notices were not issued earlier and directed the Centre to file a response by April 9. The court further asked the petitioners to file a consolidated application through nodal counsel by April 2.
“Let submissions be made on the stay application limited to 5 pages till April 2. Let respondents(Centre) file a 5 page reply to the application by April 8. So we will have all the arguments a day before the hearing,” said CJI DY Chandrachud while passing an order.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for Centre requested the top court to grant some time to file a reply. “There are 237 petitions. 20 intervention applications have been filed for stay. I need to file a reply. I was seeking time. I need time to collate” the SG submitted in the top court.
The petitioners requested the top court to stay the implementation of Rules untill the petitions are heard.
SG Mehta said that the CAA does not take away citizenship of anyone. There is no prejudice caused to the petitioners. What is done is, those who have migrated, no new person is given citizenship, only those who entered before 2014.
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