Supreme Court refuses to stay operation of Citizenship Amendment Act

The Supreme
Court has decided to examine the constitutional validity of the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act, CAA.

However, the
Court refused to stay its operation as perused by some lawyers appearing for
petitioners.

Attorney
General KK Venugopal, representing the Centre, opposed the petitioner’s
submission. He said there are as many as four judgements which have held that a
law cannot be stayed after being notified.

Hearing a
batch of pleas challenging the CAA, the top court yesterday issued a notice to
the Centre and sought its response by the second week of January next year.

A bench
comprising Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya
Kant fixed 59 petitions, including those filed by the Indian Union Muslim
League and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, for hearing on the 22nd of January.

The bench
also agreed to the submission of a lawyer that common people should be made
aware of the aim, objects and the contents of the CAA.