india

Updated: Mar 05, 2020 12:15 IST

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to consider the request made by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) to list the case challenging the validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) after the Holi break.

The IUML is one the petitioners before the top court challenging the constitutional validity of the contentious citizenship law.

Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for the IUML, mentioned the matter before Chief Justice SA Bobde, pointing out that the petitions date back to December last year.

The CJI said that he will list the matter after the arguments in the Sabarimala case, which he said will be heard from March 16.

Upon this, Sibal pointed out that if the case is listed only after the Sabarimala matter, then there would be no chance of it coming up before April.

“If it (CAA) is listed after Sabarimala, it won’t come up before April”, said Sibal.

He then impressed upon the court that the CAA case needs to be heard only for two hours so that interim relief can be provided.

CJI Bobde then agreed to consider his request and gave liberty to Sibal to mention the case after the Holi break.

The apex court will go on a week-long Holi break next week before reopening on March 16.

The CJI also asked the central government to file its response in the CAA case after Sibal pointed out that the union government is yet to file its reply.

Centre’s top law officer, Attorney General KK Venugopal told the court that the reply is ready and will be filed within two days.

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