Pratidin Sangbad, 22nd January: The honorable Supreme Court of India on Wednesday said that it will consider the impact of CAA in Assam separately and hear Assam and Tripura related petitions on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) separately. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, who heard the 144 petitions said, “It will hear petitions pertaining to Assam and Tripura separately as the problem with CAA in these two states is different from rest of the country.” This decision of Supreme Court has been well accepted by the people of Assam who are protesting the CAA. A total of 17 petitions were filed by various organization and individuals. The Supreme Court’s decision on CAA creates hope for the people of Assam. At the time of the hearing, Malavika Trivedi, the advocate from All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) delivered the problems of Assam regarding CAA. She spoke about the Assam Accord and requested the bench to consider Assam’s problems with the CAA separately. Senior advocate Bikash Singh, from the “Advocates’ Association for Indigenous Rights of Assamese” also described the problems related to CAA. He said that the new law would change the demography of Assam as it would grant Citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis. He also said that he was hoping that the Court would stay the Act, which triggered protests in several parts of the country including northeastern states. He added, “By the Assam Accord, the base year of detecting foreigners was 1971. Until and unless the problem of base year is not settled, (the government) should not take any decision regarding the Act.” Another advocate too spoke about the NRC and the Attorney General of India delivered an important note on NRC in the Supreme Court saying that the Assam National Register of Citizenship (NRC) will not be complete until the national list is published by the Registrar General of India.
The Court has given the centre four weeks to respond to petitions against CAA, refusing to pass any ex-parte order without hearing the centre on staying the amended law and the NPR. The Court asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal to assist in these matters especially with regards to Assam and Tripura.