Citizenship Act: No stay order by Indian SC

India’s Supreme Court yesterday declined to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but agreed to examine its constitutional validity.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde, Justice B R Gavai and Justice Surya Kant fixed the next hearing on January 22.

It issued a notice to the Indian government seeking a reply to all the 59 petitions challenging the amended law that makes it easier for Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India before 2015 to acquire citizenship.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed by parliament and assented to by President Ram Nath Kovind last week turning it into an Act.

The apex court took note of the submission by a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwini Upadhyay that there is confusion among citizens about the Citizenship Amendment Act and asked the Attorney General, representing the Indian government, to consider using audio-visual medium to make citizens aware about amended law.

Meanwhile, anti-CAA protests continued outside the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi for the third consecutive day yesterday.

The protesters raised slogans against Home Minister Amit Shah, the government and the Delhi police, demanding withdrawal of the CAA.

The Delhi Police yesterday clamped prohibitory orders in Seelampur area following violent and arson protests and arrested two more persons in connection with the incidents, taking the total number of arrests to eight.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a blistering attack on the BJP-led government in protest against the act.

Participating in a street march from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade in Kolkata for the third consecutive day yesterday, she reiterated: “We will never allow NRC and the amended Citizenship Act in Bengal.

“No one will be asked to leave the state. We believe in the coexistence of all religions, castes and creed. All of us are citizens of this country, no one can take that away from us.”

No fresh incident of violence was reported in West Bengal and Assam yesterday.

However, a senior police officer of West Bengal and two other police personnel were injured when a group of anti-CAA agitators hurled crude bombs at them in Sankrail area of Howrah district on Tuesday night.

In northern Uttar Pradesh state, more than 110 people were arrested over the protests, or for posting on social media, police told AFP.

Hostels at the state’s Aligarh Muslim University, where police brutality was alleged by students on Sunday, were emptied after residents were told by the administration to start winter vacations early.

Thousands of people took part in a protest march against the NRC and the amended Citizenship Act in Mumbra, a predominantly Muslim township near Mumbai yesterday.

Most shops in the area downed their shutters and auto-rickshaws remained off the roads.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram yesterday pushed back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Pakistan citizenship jibe at the main opposition party, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Chidambaram was responding to the challenge posed by Modi to the opposition to publicly declare that they are prepared to accord Indian citizenship to all Pakistanis.

“Why should we give citizenship to people who are already citizens of Pakistan? What is the meaning of such challenges to the opposition,” he said. 

A day after Sonia Gandhi led a delegation of opposition leaders to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking withdrawal of the CAA, the Bahujan Samaj Party yesterday submitted a memorandum to him demanding the same.

The party also urged an inquiry into “police excesses” on the students of Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University and Nawada University in Uttar Pradesh.

One of India’s top Muslim cleric yesterday appealed for restraint while exercising the democratic right to protest against the CAA.

Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, stressed that the CAA has nothing to do with Muslims living in India.

Hyderabad-based Urdu writer Mujtaba Hussain has decided to return his Padma Shri award, saying he was not happy with the current situation in the country.

The UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday the global body was “concerned about the violence and alleged use of excessive force by security forces that we’ve seen that have been taking place”.

“We very much call for restraint and urge full respect for the rights of freedom of opinion and expression and peaceful assembly,” he added.