Supreme Court refuses to stay implementation of CAA; Restrains High Courts from hearing CAA-related petitions

Supreme Court has refused to stay the operation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde said today that it cannot grant any stay on CAA without hearing Centre.

The court asked the Centre to file its reply within 4 weeks on petitions. The court also said that it will constitute a larger constitution bench to hear the matter.

Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General KK Venugopal said that the government needs time to respond to pleas. The government has received copies of around 60 petitions out of the total 143.

The petitioners had requested the Supreme Court to put on hold operation of CAA and postpone the exercise of National Population Register (NPR) for time being.

Chief Justice Bobde also restrained all the High Courts from hearing any petition in favour or against the Citizenship Amendment Act.