The Supreme Court on March 19 listed challenges to the freshly-notified Citizenship Amendment Rules and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, for hearing on April 9. The court issued notice to the Centre and asked it to file a response to the pleas.

The court was hearing a batch of over 200 pleas seeking a stay on CAA. "Let submissions be made on the stay application limited to 5 pages till April 2. Let respondents file a 5 page reply to the application by April 8. So we will have all the essential arguments a day before the hearing," said CJI DY Chandrachud.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said 236 petitions and many applications have been filed. He sought time to file a response.

Senior advocate Indira, Jaisingh, who appeared for the petitioners, asked Mehta to make a statement that no one will be granted citizenship under the law till the petitions are decided. Mehta said such a statement cannot be made.

Jaisingh urged the court to observe that all citizenships granted will be granted subject to the outcome of the case. However, the CJI said the government does not even have an infrastructure in place to get the process going.

The pleas have been kept pending since the rules to implement the law had not been notified. The primary contention of these petitions is that the law violates the constitution by not making Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan eligible for citizenship.

The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which is leading the charge against the CAA and has a case pending on the matter, filed an application on March 12 to halt the implementation of the CAA. The petitioners also said there was no need for the government to wait for over four years.