The Supreme Court will hear on March 19 a clutch of pleas demanding that the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, be stayed and that no coercive steps be taken against persons belonging to the Muslim community deprived of the benefit of this law. The Union government notified the CAA rules on March 11.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud agreed to list the batch of over 200 petitions along with fresh applications after senior counsel Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter, pressing for an urgent hearing.

“The petitions have been pending since 2019. Earlier, we did not press for a stay of the law because they [the government] argued that rules were yet to be framed. Just before the general elections, they announced the rules. Once citizenships are granted, it would be difficult to reverse the process,” said Sibal, appearing for the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

IUML is one of the petitioners in the court that have challenged the validity of the amendments and Section 6B in the Act which aim at granting fast-track citizenship to non-Muslim refugees who came to India on or before December 31, 2014, because of religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Apart from IUML, Assam Congress leader Debabrata Saikia, Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (a regional student outfit), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) have moved separate applications seeking a stay on the CAA rules.

Representing the Union government, solicitor-general Tushar Mehta said he has no difficulty if the court hears the case on any suitable day. “I would also like to say that none of the petitioners has the locus to say, ‘don’t grant citizenship’. As far the argument on elections is concerned, I will keep the politics out of the court,” Mehta said.

To this, the CJI said that the bunch of all 237 petitions in the matter can be listed on March 19. “All parties with diverse points…We can hear a few lawyers.”

IUML on Tuesday moved its plea contending that CAA rules create a “highly truncated and fast-tracked process” for the grant of citizenships to non-Muslim migrants from the specified countries, thereby making operational a “manifestly arbitrary and discriminatory” regime solely on the ground of religious identity.

“Since the CAA discriminates on the basis of religion, it strikes at the root of secularism, which is the basic structure of the Constitution…India’s constitutional framework, read with obligations under the international law, mandates a framework of refugee protection that is non-discriminatory,” said the plea, filed through advocate Pallavi Pratap.

It pointed out that waiting for the final judgment of the court would not hamper anyone’s interest as the Centre also took more than four years to notify the rules after the amendments received the presidential assent in December 2019.

“If this court finally decided that CAA is unconstitutional, people who would have received citizenship under this Act will have to be stripped of their citizenships. Therefore, it is in the best interest of everyone to defer the implementation of CAA and impugned rules till this hon’ble court finally decides the matter,” IUML pleaded.

The Kerala-based political party urged the court to stay the implementation of CAA and the rules, adding that until the court decides, persons belonging to the Muslim community may not be subjected to any coercive action under the Citizenship Act, Passport Act, or Foreigners Act.

IUML has also approached the registrar concerned to seek an urgent hearing of its plea.

For over a year, the Supreme Court has not held an effective hearing in this matter. Four years after the controversial law was passed to fast-track citizenship to non-Muslims, who entered India from the three neighbouring countries on or before December 31, 2014, the Centre on Monday notified the rules, entailing the architecture granting citizenship through certificates of registration and naturalisation.

Announcing the notification, which was expected after several ministers and officials over the past few months said that the rules would be released before this summer’s general elections, Union home minister Amit Shah said on X: “The Modi government notified the Citizenship (amendment) rules, 2024. These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation… With this notification, PM Shri @narendramodi Ji has delivered on another commitment and realised the promise of the makers of our constitution to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians living in those countries.”

The announcement of the rules, in keeping with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) promise in its 2019 manifesto, was criticised by Opposition parties who said the timing of the notification is linked to the coming elections.

The law was passed in December 2019, but the underlying rules were not framed. Its passage resulted in protests, which petered out only with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The petitions filed in the Supreme Court since 2019 have challenged CAA provisions on grounds of religious discrimination against Muslims and arbitrariness.

Responding to these petitions, the Centre’s affidavit in October 2022 said that the legality of the CAA may not be within the scope of judicial review since matters of citizenship and foreign policy fall squarely within the domain of Parliament. The government asserted that issues concerning the sovereign plenary power of parliament, especially regarding citizenship, cannot be questioned by filing PILs.