New Delhi/IBNS: The Supreme Court on Wednesday began hearing a clutch of petitions on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) which was passed by Parliament more than a month ago.
The top court will hear as many as 144 petitions with most of them seeking the declaration of the law as "unconstitutional".
The CAA, which has already been notified by the Union Home Ministry effective from Jan 10, aims to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi but not Muslim refugees who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015.
The Opposition parties and the protesters against the law are accusing the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of violating the Constitution by hurting the secular fabric of the nation.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde is hearing the petitions which were also filed by Congress, DMK, CPI, CPI-M, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), AIMIM, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra, Kamal Haasan's MNM.
The hearing is taking place amid the nationwide protests against the CAA. Over the last one month, the country saw various students protests with several of them turning violent.
The protests began first in Assam with the people of the state opposing the grant of citizenship to any refugee who came to India from the three neighbouring countries irrespective of his religion.
After Assam, violent protests were witnessed by West Bengal, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the protesting students of Jamia Millia Islamia University were allegedly assaulted by Delhi Police and later a similar attack took place on the students of Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh where at least 20 people were killed.
The top court has already issued a notice to the Centre over the issues related to CAA.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said anyone can continue with his protests but the government will not revoke CAA.
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