Supreme Court to begin final hearing of pleas challenging legality of CAA from May 5 | India News
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on Thursday scheduled the final hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), for the week beginning May 5, 2026.Petitioners challenging the CAA will be heard on May 5 and May 6 for half days. The respondent central government, supporting the law, will present its arguments during the remaining half of May 6 and continue on May 7.The petitions challenged the law on the grounds that it applied to six specific religious minorities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, while excluding other allegedly persecuted minorities such as the Rohingyas in Bangladesh and the Ahmadis in Pakistan.The bench also indicated that separate hearings on specific issues in Assam and Tripura will be taken up soon after the arguments in the main batch of cases are over. The overall hearing is expected to conclude by May 12.“We are at liberty to place on record any material and other documents, if any, in written submissions within four weeks. However, there will be no (fresh) writ petition on written submissions already placed on record,” the court said.The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, seeks to fast-track Indian citizenship for members of six specified minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, citing religious persecution in those countries.The law was; Notified on December 12, 2019 and effective on January 10, 2020.The Supreme Court, in its order dated March 19, 2024, refused an immediate stay on the CAA rules. The petitioners argued for an immediate stay, fearing that the process would be “irreversible” if citizenship was granted pending litigation. Conversely, the Solicitor General requested a four-week window to file a formal response.During the proceedings, the court noted the petitioners’ concerns but set a strict deadline for written submissions, limiting both the petitioners and the union to five-page summaries to expedite the hearing.
