Supreme Court to hear over 140 pleas challenging CAA today

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear today a batch of pleas seeking to examine the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act . A bench, headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, which had issued notice to the Centre on 18th of December last year on various pleas, is likely to hear a batch of 143 petitions. These include pleas filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. Some of the petitions filed later have also sought a stay on the operation of the legislation which came into force on 10th of January.

Several petitions have been filed challenging the Constitutional validity of the CAA, including by RJD leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi. Several other petitioners include Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGOs ‘Rihai Manch’ and Citizens Against Hate, Advocate M L Sharma and some law students have also approached the Apex court challenging the act.

CAA seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.