NEW DELHI: Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) on Thursday filed two fresh petitions in the Supreme Court seeking stay of the operation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 notification issued by the Centre.
It also sought a direction to the Centre to clarify whether the National Register for Citizens (NRC) would be prepared across the country.
The applications refer to the statements made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on various occasions that CAA is the precursor to NRC. A statement made by MoS Sports Kiren Rijiju in Rajya Sabha that NPR is the first step towards NRC is also mentioned in the application.
The application further states that the Prime Minister, Home Minister and also the Union Law Minster have later made statements denying plans for NRC and also link between NPR and NRC. These statements were made in the wake of country wide protests against CAA and NRC.
Seeking clarification from Centre, the application stated, "Such contradictory statements given by the Ministers of the Union Respondents are creating a widespread confusion and panic among people at large. Therefore the Respondent Union must clarify their stand and halt any proceeding in relation to the said NRC and NPR process till the present writ is pending before this Hon'ble Court."
The party has earlier filed a plea in the apex court against the CAA calling it unconstitutional. Earlier, the Kerala government, which also passed a resolution against the amended Citizenship Act moved the Supreme Court against the new law. The Supreme court is scheduled to hear batch of 60 petitions on January 22.
The CAA grants grant Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.