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Synopsis

Asaduddin Owaisi, the President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has filed an application before the Supreme Court of India seeking a stay on implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and the Amendment Rules, 2024 till the petitions challenging the Act are disposed of.

The Member of Parliament representing Hyderabad constituency in Lok Sabha has also sought a direction that no applications seeking grant of citizenship status be entertained or processed by the government under Section 6B of the CAA during the pendency of the proceedings.

"There are numerous instances in the past when this has been done. Moreover, no prejudice shall be caused to the Respondents in the event stay of the implementation of the Amended Act and the 2024 Rules is granted by this Hon’ble Court as the Union of India itself has not operationalized the Amendment Act for over four (4) years", the application filed through Advocate MR Shamshad adds. 

In his petition, Owaisi has challenged the 2019 Act, on grounds of it offering an incentive to persons from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan desirous of obtaining Indian Citizenship to change their religion to one of the six religions mentioned in the Amendment Act in order to avail the relaxed requirement of citizenship applicable to persons of these religions under the Amendment Act.

"....the evil posed by the CAA is simply not of one of under-inclusion of grant of citizenship but is very blatantly the isolation of a minority community to selectively take action against them consequential to denial of citizenship. Any such action taken selectively against Muslims who have been excluded / left out of NRC would be onerous, likely irreversible and completely unconstitutional...", court has been told.

Yesterday, CJI Chandrachud had agreed to hear the applications filed by Indian Union Muslim League and others seeking a stay on the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 on Tuesday, March 19.

By way of these applications, Court has been asked to stay the continued operation of the Impugned provisions of Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019; and Citizenship Amendment Rules 2024, which would result in valuable rights being created and citizenship being granted to persons belonging to only certain religions, thereby resulting in a fait accompli situation.

A few days back the Central government notified the rules to implement CAA.

It is to be noted that that Supreme Court had earlier referred the pleas challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 to a three-judge bench. 

Over 200 petitions that were filed after the introduction of the Amendment Act in 2019, were taken up by the Supreme Court. Notices in the pleas were issued in January 2020, but the matter could not be taken up for hearing.

CAA, which was passed on December 12, 2019, amends Section 2 of the Citizenship Act of 1955 which defines “illegal migrants”. Now, persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from the neighboring countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, shall not be treated as “illegal migrants” and shall be eligible to apply for citizenship under the 1955 Act.

Case Title: Asaduddin Owaisi vs. Union of India and Ors.