The Supreme Court on Monday sought detailed responses from the central government in a bunch of pleas challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

“The Union of India (UOI) shall file appropriate responses with respect to segments of challenges. Let the needful be done in 4 weeks from today,” the two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit, said.

The bench, also comprising Justice S Ravindra Bhat, said that so far as the state of Assam and Tripura is concerned, they shall file their compilation and complete pleadings within four weeks.

Their pleadings shall also be taken into consideration for the compilation and fixed the matter for further hearing to Oct 31.

The Apex Court also directed the Assam and Tripura government to file response on petitions having state specific question in connection with the CAA.
Counsel, representing various petitioners, submitted that the court should make a schedule to hear the matter and pointed out towards segregation, as there are two sets of matters. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, agreed with the suggestion.
In order to streamline hearing on over 200 petitions, the top court said the petitions needed to be put in different compartments so that submissions could be easily advanced and confined to the challenges arising in respect of such segments.
It said that the SG’s office would prepare a complete list of the matters pertaining to these challenges and they would be put in different compartments depending upon the challenge raised in individual petitions. It further added that the Centre would file appropriate responses with respect to segments of challenges and the exercise should be done in four weeks.

The Supreme Court said that once the issues are identified and petitions are segregated, it will decide whether the matter will be referred to a three-judge bench or not.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal stated that there were two sets of matter and there was a need for segregation in the matters. 

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta agreed with the same and stated that the issues could be classified for the ease of court and that he could circulate the same in advance and ensure that if there existed any overlap, he would point the same. Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy also highlighted that there were some matters which were wrongly classified as non-Assam matters and the same had to be reclassified. 

The court further stated that in the meantime, notices be issued in all fresh matters wherever notices have not been issued. Responses to petitions shall be filed by Union of India going by compartments. 

So far as State of Assam and Tripura are concerned, they shall also file their compilation reports and also complete pleadings by four weeks and their pleadings shall also be taken into consideration for the compilation.

The CJI noted, “Our attention has been drawn to the order in which the matters from Assam and Northeast were asked to be segregated.”

Thus, in light of the order dated 22.01.2020, the court passed the following directed that the office of Solicitor General shall prepare a complete list of the matters pertaining to these challenges and the matters shall be put in different compartments depending upon the challenge raised in individual petitions.

The Union of India shall file appropriate responses with respect to segments of challenges and that the exercise be done in four weeks from today.

After such segmenting is done, the lead matters shall be demarcated and a convenience compilation representing lead matters shall be prepared after consulting counsels for the other side, the bench said.