Supreme Court To Hear Petitions Challenging CAA On 9 April, Kapil Sibal Demands Stay On Granting Citizenship Until Then

The Supreme Court is set to hear petitions against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on 9 April after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought four weeks to file a reply during the hearing on Tuesday (19 March).

Mehta said that time is needed because 237 writ petitions challenging the CAA and 20 applications demanding a stay on it have been filed.

However, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud noted, "The request of four weeks is opposed on the ground that in the meantime if citizenship is granted, it will be irreversible."

The matter was heard by a bench led by CJI and comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for the petitioners and demanded no citizenship should be granted until next hearing.

However, Mehta refused to make any such promise. The CJI then assured Sibal that if anything happened during this time period, the doors of the court were open for petitioners.

On CJI's question about steps being taken to grant citizenship, Mehta explained that there is a three-tier system. First is one committee, then another higher committee and finally the Central government grants citizenship.

The Bench also passed an order appointing separate nodal counsels for petitions relating to the states of Assam and Tripura. Advocate Ankit Yadav was appointed for the petitioners and Advocate Kanu Agarwal for the respondents.