New Delhi, 31 October: The Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing on the petitions challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act till December 6. The Supreme Court has tasked two lawyers to prepare a compendium of the main issues raised in all the petitions.
A total of 232 petitions have been filed on the Citizenship Amendment Act. Out of these, 53 are associated with Assam and Tripura. The petitions relating to Tripura and Assam will be heard separately. On Monday, the Central Government filed separate affidavits regarding Tripura and Assam, saying that the Citizenship Amendment Act does not violate the Assam Accord and the cultural rights of the people of the North-East.
The union Home Ministry, in an affidavit, said that the CAA provides for the protection of Hindus, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists who have come from Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh before December 31, 2014. This law has been brought to prevent illegal infiltration in India.
On March 17, 2020, the Central Government had filed an affidavit in this matter. In the 133-page affidavit, the Centre had said that there is nothing wrong with the Citizenship Amendment Act. This law has been relaxed for the people of certain communities of certain countries. Persecution is being done on the basis of religion in the respective countries and the Parliament made this amendment keeping in mind the persecution being done on the basis of religion in those countries in the last 70 years. The legal, democratic and secular rights of any Indian citizen are not affected by this law.
The Centre had said that the issue of granting citizenship is a parliamentary legislative business, it depends on foreign policy. There cannot be judicial intervention in this matter. This law does not violate Article 14 of the Constitution.
