SC to hear pleas challenging Citizenship Amendment Act today
A three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India will hear the petitions. The other judges are Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant.
New Delhi: On Wednesday, the Supreme Court would take up around 60 petitions challenging the Centre’s Citizenship law. A three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India will hear the petitions. The other judges in the bench are Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant.
The new Citizenship Amendment Act is meant to expedite for non-Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who moved to India till 2014 after facing religious persecution in their home countries.
Among those who filed the petitions are senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, the Indian Union Muslim League and Asom Gana Parishad, an ally of the ruling BJP in Assam.
Last Wednesday, President Ram Nath Kovind signed off on the law and since then there have been widespread protests, especially in the northeast, Bengal and Delhi.
In Delhi, a protest march by the Jamia students had gone out of hand and ended in violence on Sunday. Stones were thrown at the police when they tried to stop the march, buses and two-wheelers were burnt. Sunday’s violence has triggered protests in campuses across the country.
Three Chief Ministers -- Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan and Punjab's Amarinder Singh -- have declared that they would not allow the implementation of the citizenship law and the national registry of citizens in their states.