The Supreme Court made it clear on Wednesday that it would not stay the operation of Citizenship (Amendment) Act without hearing the Centre and said that a five-judge Constitution bench would decide its validity.
Seeking response of the central government in four weeks on a batch of pleas challenging the CAA, the top court also restrained high courts in the country from proceedings with pending petitions on the issue.
"We are not going to pass any ex-parte order without hearing Centre on the aspects of interim relief," a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said.
The observation assumes significance as a battery of senior lawyers led by Kapil Sibal and A M Singhvi vehemently sought judicial intervention and demanded that the operation of the CAA and National Population Register (NPR) processes be stopped for a couple of months till apex court decides the petitions.
Taking note of vehement opposition of the Centre, represented by Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the bench observed "according to the government this relief is akin to granting stay on the Act".
The bench, also comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, said: "The matter is uppermost in everybody's mind. We will form a five-judge bench and then list the case. Issue notice on all such petitions in which notices were not issued. Attorney General K K Venugopal seeks time to file reply in four weeks."
The bench said, "Even we think that the matter should be heard by a Constitution bench."
Senior advocate K V Vishwanathan, appearing for some anti-CAA petitioners said, "The operation of the Act should be postponed as their is apprehension among the minority but their is also anguish among the majority class of the country."