New Delhi: The country is going through difficult times and there is so much violence that endeavour should be for peace, the Supreme Court observed Thursday while refusing to entertain a plea seeking the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) be declared constitutional.
Expressing surprise over the petition, a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde said this was the first time that someone was seeking that an Act be declared as constitutional.
The bench, also comprising justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant, said it will hear the petitions challenging validity of CAA when the violence stops.
“There is so much of violence going on. The country is going through difficult times and the endeavour should be for peace… This court’s job is to determine validity of a law and not declare it (CAA) as constitutional,” CJI Bobde said during the hearing.
The observation was made after advocate Vineet Dhanda sought the court’s intervention to declare CAA as constitutional and a direction to all states for implementation of the Act.
It is only the Supreme Court which can help in clarification of the present situation and guide ‘confused’ citizens of this country who are being misguided, said Dhanda.
As the bench remained unimpressed, the counsel appearing for petitioner Puneet Kaur Dhanda, withdrew the petition with liberty to intervene in the similar matters.
The apex court in its order said, “After some arguments, counsel appearing for the petitioner prays for withdrawal of this petition with liberty to intervene in the petition(s) on the similar issue pending before this Court. Prayer is allowed. Accordingly, the writ petition is dismissed as withdrawn with the liberty aforesaid.”
The plea had also sought action against activists and media houses for ‘spreading rumours’. The plea also sought directions to extensively publicise through newspapers, electronic media and other means on the issue of Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and clarify that it is not against the Constitution of India.
The apex court had agreed December 18 to examine the constitutional validity of the CAA, but refused to stay its operation.
The apex court had earlier had fixed a batch of 59 petitions, including those filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, for hearing on January 22.
Several petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the Act including by RJD leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi.
Other petitioners including Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGOs ‘Rihai Manch’ and Citizens Against Hate, advocate ML Sharma, and law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.
PTI