The Indian Supreme Court announced Friday it will take up a batch of petitions on Tuesday, which seek to challenge the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) and the recently introduced Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024. The CAA is an Indian law that fast-tracks citizenship for persecuted minorities from neighboring countries. Also, the Indian government introduced the CAR on Monday to implement the CAA.

A three-judge bench of the SC passed an order to list a batch of petitions against CAA for a hearing on Tuesday, which has been an ongoing case in the Supreme Court since 2019. The Supreme Court passed the order after the petitioners approached the court because of the Indian government’s official notification of the CAR, which implements CAA.

The Indian government officially notified the CAR on Monday, enabling persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to apply for Indian citizenship under the CAA. Subsequently, the move was criticized, including allegations of opportunism before the General Elections against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Protests also took place nationwide, both for and against the notification.

The CAA offers a route to Indian citizenship for undocumented migrants of six religious minorities (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian) who arrived in India before 2015 from the neighboring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. However, critics contend that it discriminates against Muslims and contravenes India’s secular constitutional principles.

Numerous petitions, around 200 in total, have been filed in the SC challenging the constitutionality of the CAA under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution. These petitions primarily argue that the CAA discriminates on religious grounds and violates fundamental rights such as equality and dignity guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21. They contend that the CAA fails the two-part reasonable classification test established by the Supreme Court under Article 14, as it lacks intelligible differentia and a rational nexus to the law’s objective to provide citizenship to religiously persecuted persons.