The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre on the applications seeking stay on the Citizen Amendment Rules 2024, brought to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019. A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked the Centre to respond within three weeks and will take up the hearing on April 9, 2024.
Even though the petitioners were persistent on stay of rules in the meantime, the bench didn’t pass any such order. Petitioners then said that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre, be asked to give an undertaking that rules will not be implemented and citizenship will not be granted till the petitions are pending before the apex court.
However, Mehta refused to make statement that Centre will not grant any citizenship in the meantime. He said whether migrants are granted citizenship or not, none of the petitioners are affected. He clarified that the CAA doesn’t take away citizenship from anyone.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing one of the petitioners, asked what the sudden urgency was to notify the rules nearly four years after the CAA was passed.
“What’s the urgency after four years? If any process of citizenship starts and people get citizenship, it will be irreversible. So the process shouldn’t start. Once you grant citizenship, you can’t take it back,” Sibal said. Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for migrants, said, “I am from Balochistan, I came to India because I was persecuted. If I am given citizenship, how is it affecting them?” Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for one of the petitioners, replied, “They will get the right to vote.”