New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday said it will hear on December 18 pleas of the Congress and former Maharaja of Tripura Pradyot Kishor Deb Barman challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said it will hear the pleas along with other pending matters coming up for hearing on December 18.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned for urgent listing the two pleas and said they should also be heard along with a similar plea filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) that is coming up for hearing on Wednesday.
Several petitions, including those by Congress MP Jairam Ramesh and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019.
Several other petitioners including All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, NGOs 'Rihai Manch' and Citizens Against Hate, advocate M L Sharma, law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.
While Ramesh has said that the Act is a "brazen attack" on core fundamental rights envisaged under the Constitution and treats "equals as unequal", Moitra has said that "patent unconstitutionality" of the law "destroys the plural, multi-religious and egalitarian basis of India's secular fabric, and replaces it with a constitutionally unsustainable religion centric substance."
Ramesh said that substantial questions of law, including whether religion can be a factor to either acquire or deny citizenship in India, arises for consideration of the court as it is a "patently unconstitutional" amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955.
