SC to start hearing petitions challenging CAA on December 6

In its order, the court chose the petition filed by the Indian Union Muslim League to be the main case and appointed its lawyer as the nodal counsel for the petitioners

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit on Monday posted 232 petitions challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act on December 6, 2022, giving the parties, including the Centre, States of Assam and Tripura, and the petitioners a deadline to complete the paperwork in five weeks so that the hearing can start.

Chief Justice Lalit is retiring on November 8. The case would now come up before another Bench.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre, said the government has already filed its reply in court saying the CAA is a “benign piece of legislation” while Assam and Tripura were yet to respond. He sought a short accommodation for the two States to file their responses.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, one of the petitioners, said the "idea is to get the hearing started". He said the issue is not whether there were 200 petitions or 75. He said the issues highlighted in the petitions were the same. The court should designate one of the petitions as the main case and go ahead with the hearing.

Mr. Singhvi said the issues highlighted in the petitions, despite their geographical or religious classifications, were fundamentally constitutional in nature. He asked the government side to be put on a deadline to file their responses.

"Everybody is intent to get it started," Mr. Singhvi said.

The court, in its order, chose the petition filed by the Indian Union Muslim League to be the main case and appointed its lawyer, advocate Pallavi Pratap, as the nodal counsel for the petitioners. It appointed advocate Kanu Agarwal as the nodal counsel for the government side. The court directed that parties on both sides should hand over their submissions and records to their respective nodal counsel, who would in turn prepare a common compilation for the perusal of the court. The digital versions of the compilations would be shared by the parties’ counsel.