GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court agreed to consider a series of petitions seeking to halt the recently-enacted Citizenship Amendment Rules, with the hearing scheduled for Tuesday, March 19.
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Among the petitioners is the Indian Union Muslim League, which, along with others, approached the apex court following the government's notification of the rules. These applications for interim stay were filed within their existing writ petitions. The Citizenship Amendment Rules were introduced by the government to implement the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, which is currently the subject of numerous ongoing legal challenges.
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IUML's applications were mentioned by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal today before a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, with a request for an urgent hearing, as reported by Live Law.
The senior counsel argued, "The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed in 2019. At that time there was no rules, so no stay was granted by this court. Now they have notified the rules ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. If citizenship is granted, it will be impossible to reverse. So the interim application may be heard."
"So far as listing is concerned, I have nothing to say. It may be listed. Apropos what my learned friend has said, none of the petitioners has any locus to question the grant of citizenship," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court.
Following a brief discussion, the Chief Justice consented to schedule not only the IUML's application but also all other requests seeking a stay on the Citizenship Amendment Rules 2024 for hearing on Tuesday. Chief Justice Chandrachud also clarified that the entire batch of 237 petitions would be listed alongside the most recent interim applications.