New Delhi: The leader of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Asaduddin Salahuddin Owaisi, has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and the Amendment Rules, 2024.

The plea, filed through advocate M R Shamshad, said: “the Amendment Act has an unholy nexus with the National Register of Citizen ‘NRC’ exercise that has been concluded in Assam and is sought to be initiated in the rest of the country”.

“The immediate consequence of operationalization of the Amendment Act, if the same is not stayed by this court, would be that all non-Muslims who have been left out / excluded from the NRC in Assam would be given the opportunity to apply for citizenship under the 2024 Rules leaving only Muslims who have been left out/ excluded from the NRC to the mercy of the executive to face action consequential to loss of citizenship”, added the plea.

The plea stressed that the evil posed by the CAA is simply not one of under-inclusion of grant of citizenship but is very blatantly the isolation of a minority community to selectively take action against them consequential to denial of citizenship.

The plea said any such action taken selectively against Muslims who have been excluded / left out of NRC would be onerous, likely irreversible and completely unconstitutional. “As such, before this Court has the opportunity to adjudicate the constitutional vires of the Amendment Act, this is sufficient ground by itself for this Hon’ble Court to grant stay of the 2024 Rules / stay against implementation of the Amendment Act”, said the plea.

The plea added that the direct effect of this Amendment Act as operationalised by the 2024 Rules is that of offering by the State to any person from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan professing the Muslim faith, who is desirous of obtaining Indian citizenship, an allurement/ incentive to change his / her faith prior to applying for citizenship to avail of the relaxed requirements for citizenship. “As such, this is ex facie unconstitutional as being violative of Article 14 and 25, and its effect, if it is allowed to be operationalized, would be irreversible”, it said.

The apex court is scheduled to hear a batch of pleas seeking staying the recently-notified Citizenship Amendment Rules on March 19.