Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court said on Thursday that it will commence the final hearing of over 200 petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, on May 5, 2026.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi heard the batch of petitions today.
A statement issued by AASU president Utpal Sarma and general secretary Samiran Phukon said, “The Supreme Court said that the time of hearing of the petitions will be divided into two – a separate time slot for the hearing of petitions relating to Assam and Tripura, and another time slot for the hearing of petitions received from the rest of the country. The hearing will be started serially from May 5, 2026.”
The counsel for the AASU and the NESO (North East Students’ Organization), Advocate Malvika Trivedi, told the bench during the hearing that ‘the six scheduled areas and areas where ILP (Inner Line Permit) is in force have been exempted from the CAA. On the other hand, the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court has retained Clause 6(a) of the Citizenship Act in Assam. Thus, the background of Assam is quite different.’
After the hearing, the Chief Adviser of the AASU and the NESO, Dr Samujjal Bhattacharjya, said, “The enforcement of CAA is an injustice meted out to Assam and the other states in the Northeast. If the CAA is bad for the people living in six scheduled areas and areas covered under the ILP, it is certainly bad for the rest of Assam and other areas in the Northeast lying outside the purview of the ILP. Eight of the 35 districts of Assam have been exempted from the enforcement of Assam. We demand the exemption of the remaining 27 districts of the state from the CAA. We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will do justice with the people of Assam and the entire Northeast.”
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