An application was filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking a direction to the Centre to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 till the pendency of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 before the apex court.
The application was filed a day after the Centre implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, by notifying the rules four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
The application, filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which is one of the petitioners who have challenged the citizenship law, has sought the court's direction to ensure no coercive action is taken against people belonging to the Muslim community pending adjudication of the writ petitions.
Muslims cannot apply for Indian citizenship under the CAA. It has urged the apex court to direct the Centre to provisionally permit people belonging to the Muslim community also to apply for citizenship and submit a report on their entitlement.
A separate application has also been filed by the Democratic Youth Federation of India seeking a stay on the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.
The apex court is already seized of a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). In its application, IUML has urged the court to stay the "continued operation of the impugned provisions of Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019; and Citizenship Amendment Rules 2024, which would result in valuable rights being created and citizenship being granted to persons belonging to only certain religions, thereby resulting in a fait accompli situation, during the pendency of the present writ petition".
Seeking a stay on the rules, the application said about 250 petitions challenging the provisions of the CAA were pending before the top court.