Keeping in view of the seriousness of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and its influence across the country including the National Register of Citizens (NRC), National Population Register (NPR), it is understood that the Supreme Court of India would not give its final verdict in a rush but deliver its hearing after closely monitoring all the pros and cons of the issues.

Although the citizens of the country were eagerly waiting for the top court’s hearing on January 22nd, 2020, the highest judicial court swiftly handled the hearing by giving the Centre four weeks of time to file replies against the 140 writ petitions challenging the highly controversial law.

However, the apex court refused to grant an interim stay on CAA, NRC and NPR. This means the government is free to implement those laws until the next hearing.

The hearing was conducted by a 3-judge bench comprising of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, Justices Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna. The top court mentioned that it will set up a five-judge Constitution bench to hear the petitions keeping in view of the gravity of the issues.

While massive protests have continued in the Northeastern states specially Assam and Tripura, the top court made a clear ground that it will hear pleas of both the states differently as their problem with CAA is different from the other parts of the country.

Considering the separate agreements with the Centre regarding the preservation of indigenous people, the top court has also asked for a list of cases from these two states.

Meanwhile, the AASU has announced that they will continue to protest against the law and put pressure on the government till it is withdrawn. The top court has apparently turned into a gliding hope for the people of Northeast as they await the next hearing.

Photo Credit: TIME8