Supreme Court Takes Up Challenge to Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024

The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre and the Assam government in response to a plea challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024. Filed by Hiren Gohain, a Guwahati resident, the plea argues that these rules, aimed at granting Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014, are unconstitutional.

Gohain’s plea asserts that the rules are discriminatory and against the basic structure of the Constitution, violating fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21. The petition highlights the demographic changes in Assam due to the influx of illegal migrants, stating that indigenous people have become minorities in their own land.

The court, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala, ordered the new plea to be combined with existing cases on the matter. The plea emphasizes that the issue is not communal but about foreign infiltrators affecting the entire nation, with Assam’s population consisting of a significant number of Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 were introduced just before the Lok Sabha elections, aiming to grant citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants. The rules came into effect immediately after their announcement. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, of which these rules are a part, had sparked nationwide protests over its perceived discriminatory nature.