Our earlier article covered why Modi’s government passed the Citizenship Amendment Act and the debate surrounding its stated purpose. This article focuses specifically on the law’s ongoing legal journey: the unusually long delay before its rules took effect, and the substantial body of litigation still challenging its constitutionality.
The Unusually Long Gap Before Implementation
The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by Parliament in December 2019, but its implementing rules, the specific procedural framework needed to actually process citizenship applications under the law, were not notified until March 2024, a gap of roughly five years between the law’s passage and its practical implementation, an unusually long delay for a piece of central legislation that the government has not extensively explained beyond general references to the complexity of establishing the necessary application and verification infrastructure.
The Scale of Legal Challenges
The law and its subsequently notified rules have drawn substantial, sustained litigation. According to the Supreme Court Observer’s tracking of the case, over 200 separate petitions have been filed challenging the CAA’s and its rules’ constitutionality, a considerable volume of litigation reflecting the breadth of opposition the law has generated across different states, civil society organisations, and individual petitioners since its original 2019 passage.
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The Court’s Approach So Far
Despite this substantial volume of challenges, the Supreme Court has so far declined to stay the CAA rules from taking effect while the underlying constitutional challenges remain pending, according to the same Supreme Court Observer tracking, instead directing the Union government to respond formally to the various interim stay applications petitioners have filed, an approach that has allowed the law’s implementation to proceed in practice even while its ultimate constitutional fate remains formally undecided. The Court has scheduled final constitutional hearings on the matter for May 2026, according to the same source, meaning a definitive ruling on the CAA’s constitutionality had not yet been delivered as of this writing.
Kerala’s Leading Legal Challenge
Kerala was the first state to formally challenge the CAA at the Supreme Court, filing its case in January 2020, according to coverage by The Week and The News Minute, a challenge Kerala’s state cabinet has continued actively pursuing, directing its Advocate General to sustain the legal action, according to Deccan Herald’s more recent coverage of the state’s ongoing position, making Kerala one of the most persistently active state-level legal opponents of the law across the entire multi-year dispute.
West Bengal’s Political and Legal Opposition
West Bengal’s state assembly separately passed a formal resolution opposing the CAA, according to coverage by Deccan Herald and Gulf News, a political statement of opposition that, while distinct from Kerala’s direct Supreme Court litigation, reflects the broader pattern of several opposition-ruled states formally registering objection to the law through whatever mechanisms, legislative resolutions or direct litigation, were available to their respective state governments.
How Many Citizenship Certificates Have Actually Been Granted
On the practical implementation side, the government issued its first batch of citizenship certificates under the CAA rules to 14 applicants in May 2024, according to coverage by The Wire and The Federal, with subsequent reporting citing a larger batch of roughly 300 additional certificates issued shortly after, according to figures compiled by the Indian Bar Association, and later government claims of thousands of total citizenship grants under the CAA framework, according to Scroll.in’s coverage, though independent, verified confirmation of the precise cumulative total has remained limited given the absence of a single, consistently updated public tracker for these figures.
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What the May 2026 Hearings Could Mean
The scheduled May 2026 final hearings represent the first point at which the Supreme Court is expected to substantively rule on the CAA’s underlying constitutional questions, rather than simply managing procedural matters like interim stay applications, meaning the law’s actual constitutional fate, whether its exclusion of undocumented Muslim migrants from the neighbouring countries it covers survives an equal-protection challenge, remains genuinely open even after more than six years since the original 2019 passage, a reminder that a law’s practical implementation and its ultimate constitutional validity can proceed on entirely separate, sometimes years-apart timelines within India’s legal system.
This extended timeline also means the law has now operated in a genuinely unusual legal limbo for years, implemented in practice through certificate issuance while its core constitutional validity remains formally undetermined, a state of affairs some legal commentators have argued itself deserves scrutiny given how long a major, contested piece of citizenship legislation has been allowed to operate without a definitive judicial resolution one way or the other.
Bottom Line
The Citizenship Amendment Act’s legal journey has been unusually prolonged: its implementing rules took roughly five years to be notified after the law’s 2019 passage, over 200 petitions continue challenging its constitutionality with the Supreme Court declining to stay implementation while scheduling final hearings for May 2026, Kerala remains the most persistently active state-level legal challenger, and the government has begun issuing citizenship certificates under the law’s framework even as its ultimate constitutional fate remains formally undecided.
Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available Supreme Court records and news reports listed below. It is written for general informational purposes and does not represent an official statement from the Government of India or the Supreme Court of India.
Sources
FAQ
How long did it take for the CAA’s implementing rules to be notified?
Roughly five years. The law was passed in December 2019, but its rules were not notified until March 2024.
How many legal challenges has the CAA faced?
Over 200 petitions have been filed challenging the Act and its rules, with the Supreme Court declining to stay implementation and scheduling final constitutional hearings for May 2026.
How many people have been granted citizenship under the CAA so far?
The government issued an initial batch of 14 certificates in May 2024, followed by further batches, with later claims of thousands granted overall, though independently verified cumulative totals remain limited. —
