NEW DELHI : A 5-judge Constitution Bench set up to hear petitions against Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA), asked Centre to respond to all the pleas in four-weeks time. The petitions will be heard in two batches. Assam and Tripura cases will be heard separately, the apex court said Wednesday adding that, all cases will be taken up next at the end of six weeks. The Constitution Bench is headed by Justice Raman.
The court meanwhile issued notice to the Centre It further clarified that no Stay shall be issued on CAA as of now. However, the Bench will consider delivering an interim verdict in the case, it said. The top court also ordered that no High Court shall entertain petitions pertaining to CAA.
Petitions seeking Stay on National Population Register(NPR) surveys shall also be heard along with those challenging CAA, said the Bench. . Kapil Sibal appeared for petitions seeking Stay on CAA. He was countered by the Attorney General.
The Courtroom witnessed unprecedented crowd as the Bench sat to consider CAA pleas. The Solicitor General(SG) urged the Chief Justice of India(CJI) to impose entry restrictions given that there are 140 petitions, that would attract a sizable crowd into the room. US and Pakistan has similar restrictions in their courts, he pointed out.
Senior Counsels Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Dhaval, Abhishek Singhvi and Indira Jaisingh appeared for the petitioners while Attorney General, KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Thushar Mehta represented the Centre.
