New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear petitions challenging constitutional validity of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, on September 12.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit and Justice Ravindra Bhat will consider over 200 such petitions.
A bench headed by then-CJI SA Bobde had issued a notice on the petitions in January 2020.
The Union government had stated in its affidavit that the CAA does not impinge on any right that may have existed before the amendment was enacted. The Centre had also argued that CAA does not affect legal, democratic or secular rights of any Indian citizen.
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CAA, which was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, amended the Citizenship Act, 1955, seeks to provide Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians, and arrived in India before the end of December 2014.
The act triggered widespread criticism and led to massive protests in the country as it was the first time that religion had been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law.
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Though it’s been well over two-and-a-half years since the Bill was passed, rules for implementing the Act have still not been notified.
Union Home minister Amit Shah said earlier that the Act will certainly come into force, once the COVID-19 pandemic is under control and vaccination programme is completed.
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