Supreme Court notice to Center, next hearing on April 9

Citizenship Amendment Act: A hearing was held today in the Supreme Court on whether the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of 2019 and the rules related to it recently issued by the Central Government are constitutionally sound or not. The court has not stayed the petitions against the implementation of CAA rules. The Supreme Court has given time till April 8 to the government to file its reply. Now the hearing in this case will be held on April 8.

The bench of Chief Justice of the country DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra heard more than 230 petitions. Last week, on March 11 (Monday), the Government of India came out with the rules for granting citizenship under CAA, which meant that the controversial law CAA, which had been pending for four years, has come into force.

During the hearing today, the SG said that there are 236 petitions and I need time to file the reply. The CJI said that we give time to the government to respond and issue notices on the applications that have been filed.

The CJI said that notices are issued to those petitions and applications on which notice has not been issued. The CJI said that let the government file its reply. Then there will be a hearing on banning the rules.

Senior lawyer Vijay Hansaria said that Assam and North East have been kept out of Section 6B. Others will come to Assam from neighboring states. It says that Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura are satisfied with Section 6(B)(4). CJI asked SG when he would file his reply. SG said that he will file his reply in four weeks.

On this, lawyer Kapil Sibal said that the rules were not implemented in four and a half years and were done now. If granting of citizenship starts then the petitions will become useless. Sibal said that four weeks is too much to file the reply and a stay can be imposed till the reply is filed.

Sibal said that what was the hurry after four years, whereas earlier it had been said in the court that the rules would not be implemented. Kapil Sibal said that SG had said on January 22, 2019 that we are not going to implement the rules. In such a situation, there is no need to impose a ban. The Supreme Court never refused to impose a ban. The CJI said that we are giving the government time to file its reply in two weeks. SG said that it is okay.

Was passed in 2019

CAA was passed by the Parliament of India on December 11, 2019 and it also got the President's approval the very next day. Kerala's political party Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) challenged the CAA in the Supreme Court on the same day and hundreds of petitions were filed against it with the passage of time. This law gives citizenship to people of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who came to India before 31 December 2014. Regarding citizenship, we have a law of 1955 which has been amended several times. CAA is also the name of amendment to this law.

In 2019, through CAA, a new provision was added to Section 2(1)(b) of the original Citizenship Act. This change redefined 'illegal migrants' and refused to consider as illegal immigrants those people of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh who came to India in the 1920s. Came to India under the Passport Act, 1920 and the Foreigners Act, 1946. That means all these people could now become citizens of India under the citizenship law. Yes, it should also be recorded here that this law does not apply to the tribal areas of states like Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura like other areas of the country.

Some legal questions and demands

The inclusion of people from three countries and religions in the CAA for citizenship but not mentioning the Ahmadiyya, Hazara and other persecuted Muslims of these countries displeased many people and now the matter is in the court. By filing an application before the Supreme Court, CAA has been declared a violation of Articles 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution. Many petitioners claim that the CAA arbitrarily benefits people from certain communities on the basis of religion while restricting others, especially the Muslim community, from the benefits of citizenship. The question before the court will be whether CAA is a violation of Article 14 and 15 or not?

The petitioners also demand that the court issue guidelines to the government regarding those people of the Muslim community who have been deprived of citizenship under the CAA law. The petitioners are demanding to stop any kind of legal action against these people of Muslim community. The Indian government says that the old law regarding citizenship of foreigners remains as it is and the CAA does not tamper with it in any way.

Many petitioners in Assam also see CAA as a violation of the Assam Accord of 1985. They believe that this law ignores the 'Assam Accord' which is important for the identity of the original inhabitants of Assam and is going to end it very cleverly. The 'Assam Accord' of 1985 considers people who came to India after March 24, 1971 as foreigners, the petitioners claim that this agreement does not discriminate on the basis of religion. Many people of Assam, especially the All Assam Students Union, believe that this law will drastically increase the influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh into Assam.

This 1 decision will decide the future of CAA?

The hearing on the Citizenship Amendment Act and its related rules is currently underway in the Supreme Court, but the future of the CAA largely depends on the Supreme Court's decision on a 1985 amendment to the Citizenship Act itself. This amendment is called Section 6A of the Citizenship Act. The Constitution bench of five judges of the Supreme Court has completed the hearing on the legal validity of 6A.

On December 12 last year, a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant, Justice MM Sundaresh, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra reserved the verdict on this issue (constitutionality of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act) after a four-day hearing. Had kept it.

What is Section 6A of the Citizenship Act?

Year 1985, date 15th August. An agreement was reached between the central government and the leaders associated with the Assam movement. The real objective of the agreement was to maintain the identity of the original inhabitants of Assam. To implement the provisions of this agreement, the provision of Section 6A was added to the Citizenship Act of 1955.

Section 6A of the Citizenship Act tells who is a foreigner in Assam and who is not. For this, this section considers March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date. Under this provision of the law, people who entered Assam after January 1, 1966 and before March 25, 1971 were called foreigners.

However, these people could apply for Indian citizenship, where they would be given the rights associated with citizenship but would be deprived of the right to vote for the first ten years. This cut-off date of March 24, 1971 itself has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court in its decision upholds the cut-off date of March 24, 1971 and approves this date for entering the state for citizenship, then the Government of India's ambitious law CAA can be considered a violation of the Assam Accord. Because this law of 2019 considers 31 December 2014 as the cut-off date of citizenship.