The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Centre to pleas for a stay on the recently notified Citizenship (Amendment) Rules of 2024.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misratoday issued notice to the Centre on the plea for a stay and asked it to file its reply by April 2.

“Let submissions be made on the stay application limited to five pages till April 2. Let respondents file a 5-page reply to the application by April 8,” the apex court said.

“We direct that the proceedings be listed after three weeks. File the reply only in one case. Response not needed in all the petitions. Reply can oppose the interim prayer. We will keep this on April 9,” the top court ordered.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Union government initially sought four weeks to file the Centre’s response to the interim applications.

Notably, the apex court did not pass an order to stay the law and will hear the matter next on April 9.

Among the parties that lodged these pleas are All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Kerala’s Indian Union Muslim
League (IUML). The Kerala government has also filed a petition in the top court.