India's Supreme Court (SC) yesterday issued notice to Union government on 20-odd applications seeking stay of implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act and the Rules, which was notified on March 11, 2024. SC seeks response from Centre in three weeks and would take up hearing on April 9, 2024. Hearing a batch of 200 petitions seeking a stay on CAA 2019, petitioners made repeated requests to stay process of granting of citizenship to persecuted communities from Islamic states of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh till the SC decided stay application. As a last resort, Indira Jaising argued that at least the court should stay all citizenship granted in the meantime would be subject to court's decision. But the SC politely stepped around the plea saying infrastructure for grant of citizenship not yet in place. The petitions were heard by a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. The plea was filed by Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), that sought protection for Muslims under the Act. IUML urged the court to allow Muslims to apply for citizenship.  Another plea by the Democratic Youth Federation of India also seeks a stay on the CAA.