AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi Moves Supreme Court Seeking To Stay Citizenship Amendment Rules 2024

Several petitioners moved to the apex court after the union government notified the rules by filing interlocutory stay applications in their pending writ petitions. The Centre notified the Citizenship Amendment Rules to enforce the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (Act), which is the subject of numerous ongoing litigations.

In his application, Owaisi also prayed that no applications seeking citizenship status should be entertained under the Act until the main petition is disposed of. Apart from that, it is also pleaded that no recourse shall be allowed under the proviso to Section 2(1)(b) of the Act.

As per this proviso, which is the origin of the controversy, any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan who entered India before December 31, 2014, without valid documents will not be treated as an "illegal migrant".

Additionally, it may be noted that Owaisi had filed a petition before the Top Court in 2019, stating that the present Citizenship (Amendment) Act “miserably fails” on the touchstone of Article 14.

Brief Background

The CAA, which seeks to fast-track the process for getting Indian citizenship for non-Muslim migrants who fled from persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014, was passed by the Parliament in 2019.

However, the law's implementation was put on hold in view of the massive country-wide protests against it. The protests were compounded by the Government's proposal to introduce a National Register of Citizens (NRC) along with the implementation of the CAA.

Critics of the law object to the religion-based exclusion of refugees from the benefit of CAA, arguing that linking Indian citizenship with religion undermines the country's secular character. Over a hundred writ petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the law's constitutionality. The Supreme Court, while agreeing to hear the matter, declined to stay the operation of the Act.

The Government, in its counter-affidavit, defended the Act, stating that the law was not affecting the citizenship of any Indian citizen and that mere under-inclusion of a category while granting benefit was not a ground to strike down a law.

On March 11, the Union Government notified the rules to implement the CAA and notified the formation of committees at the State/UT level to process the applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act.