The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday refused to pass any interim order to stay the operation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) till it hears the Central government on the pleas challenging the validity of Citizenship Amendment Act. The three judge bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde granted four weeks time to Centre to file reply on the pleas. The bench headed by SA Bobde also directed all the high courts to not pass any order on CAA. The court also said that it will separately hear the cases challenging the validity of the Act that got notified on 10 January pertaining to Assam and Tripura .

The court hinted at setting up a larger five-Judge Constitution Bench to hear the case and the matter will be listed after five weeks for interim orders.

As many as 143 petitions were filed, including those filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, challenging the constitutional validity of the Act. Some pleas had sought a stay on the implementation of the legislation.

The SC on 9 January had dismissed a plea that sought CAA be declared constitutional.

Demanding an interim stay, IUML in its petition had alleged that CAA was against the basic structure of the Indian Constitution as it intends to grant citizenship to a section of illegal immigrants by making exclusion on the basis of religion. It said that the Act was discriminatory against Muslims as it extends benefits only to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians.

CAA seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.

Calling CAA a "brazen attack" on core fundamental rights, Ramesh in his plea had said the Act treats "equals as unequal".