Supreme Court Declines Stay Order On CAA, Gives Centre 4 Weeks To Reply

The Supreme Court has declined a request to pass an ex-party stay order on CAA and National Population Register (NPR) on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court completed preliminary hearing on 143 petitions on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and has asked the Centre to respond to 83 pleas challenging the validity of the Act within four weeks.

Media reports say that the Chief Justice may segregate Assam and other pleas from the North East from the rest of the petitions.

Senior Congress leader and Supreme Court lawyer, Kapil Sibal is reported to have sought a postponement of the implementation of CAA. The Attorney-general of India KK Venugopal is reported to have submitted before the Court that both houses of Parliament had passed the Act.

Supreme Court lawyer and Rajya Sabha member from the Congress Kapil Sibal and other lawyers are reported to have requested the Supreme Court to pass an interim order in the hearing.

Supreme Court lawyers Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress are also said to have appealed to The Chief Justice to defer the implementation of the act by at least two months.

Sibal also asked the Chief Justice to refer the matter to a Constitution bench.

The Attorney-general of India reportedly told the court that postponement or delay amounts to a stay on the implementation of the Act.