The Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing of petitions challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 to December 6, 2022. The top court has granted two weeks to Assam and Tripura to file their responses.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit, comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi, was hearing the petitions by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and others challenging the validity of the CAA.
Earlier on Sunday, the Centre had urged the apex court to dismiss pleas challenging the validity of the CAA, stressing that the law does not encourage illegal migration in Assam or any future influx of foreigners in the country.
It also vehemently defended the exclusion of certain areas of Assam and other Northeastern states from the application of the CAA, saying it has been done to protect the ethnic/linguistic rights of the natives and this was not discriminatory.
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It is a focused law that grants citizenship only to members of six specified communities who came on or before December 31, 2014 and does not affect the legal, democratic or secular rights of any Indian, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a detailed 150-page affidavit.
The MHA said Parliament is competent to make laws for the whole or any part of the territory of India as provided in Article 245 (1) of The Constitution and the issues of policy domain cannot be challenged in a court of law.
(With inputs from agency)
