The Indian Supreme Court has revealed plans to give consideration to a series of petitions on Tuesday, which seek to contest the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) and the newly launched Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024. The CAA is an Indian law that fast-tracks citizenship for persecuted minorities from neighboring countries. Simultaneously, the Indian government introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules (CAR) on Monday to implement the CAA.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court listed a batch of petitions against the CAA for hearing on Tuesday, a case that has been ongoing in the court since 2019. This decision came after the petitioners approached the court following the Indian government’s official announcement of the CAR, which implements the CAA.
The Indian government officially activated the CAR on Monday, allowing persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan to apply for Indian citizenship under the CAA. This move was swiftly criticized, with allegations of pre-General Elections opportunism aimed at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Nationwide protests also occurred, both in support and opposition to the announcement.
The CAA offers a path to Indian citizenship for undocumented migrants who belong to six religious minorities – Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian – from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, arriving in India before 2015. However, its critics argue that it discriminates against Muslims and contravenes India’s secular constitutional principles.
Approximately 200 petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the CAA under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution. These petitions primarily claim that the CAA discriminates on religious grounds and infringes upon fundamental rights such as equality and dignity under Articles 14 and 21. They assert that the CAA fails the two-part reasonable classification test defined by the Supreme Court under Article 14 since it lacks intelligible differentia and a rational nexus to the law’s objective to provide citizenship to religiously persecuted persons.