The Supreme Court of India agreed on Friday, March 15, to hear petitions challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act rules 2024. The Court has set a hearing date of March 19 to seek a direction to the Centre to stay the implementation of the recently released CAA rules by the Narendra Modi government.
On March 14, the Communist Party of India (CPI) Rajya Sabha MP and CPI Kerala State Secretary Binoy Viswam approached the Supreme Court challenging the implementation of the CAA. The petitions seek a stay on implementing the CAA rules, which have been the subject of much debate since their announcement.
"LDF government approached the Supreme Court to confirm that Kerala would not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act. Kerala is the first state to move a plea against CAA in the Supreme Court. The state will initiate further legal action soon," Vijayan said.
In addition to Kerala, the Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have announced that the CAA will not be implemented in their respective states.
On March 11, the Union Home Ministry notified the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha election schedule.
The CAA rules, introduced by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament in 2019, aim to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants--including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians--who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.