Supreme Court refuses to grant an interim stay on CAA; gives Centre four weeks to respond

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court has refused to grant an interim stay on CAA, instead it has asked Centre to respond to pleas challenging CAA within four weeks.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal requested the bench to put on hold operation of CAA and postpone NPR for now.

The court said it will not grant any stay on CAA without hearing the Centre.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde on Wednesday was hearing a batch of 143 pleas challenging CAA.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing on behalf of the Centre, informed the bench that the government needs time to respond to pleas that it has not received. Out of 143 petitions, the Centre has received copies of 60 pleas.

The court also said a five-judge constitution bench will give an interim order on some 140 petitions on the citizenship law.

CAA petitions related to Assam, Tripura will be considered separately. The Supreme Court has also asked for a list of cases from these two states.

CAA aims to protect religiously persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan by giving them Indian Citizenship. The cut-off date for those to be given citizenship in India has been fixed at, on or before 31st December 2014.

Home minister Amit Shah has reiterated that CAA will not be withdrawn under any circumstances.

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