Cotton University students hold protest against CAA in Guwahati

Students from the Cotton University (CU) staged a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) here on Wednesday.

The protest comes as the Supreme Court earlier today granted the central government four weeks' time to file a reply on the petitions regarding the CAA and indicated setting up a Constitution Bench to hear the pleas.

The top court did not put a stay on the newly-enacted law, as demanded by some petitioners.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna passed the order while hearing more than 140 petitions on the newly-amended citizenship law.

Security was tightened outside the apex court as the hearing was underway.

The CAA fast-tracks the process of granting citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and took refuge in India on or before December 31, 2014.

Several petitions were filed in the top court and high courts across the country for and against the law. There have been protests in different parts of the country against the Act. It has also been challenged by the Kerala government in the apex court.

Kerala and West Bengal have also said that they will not implement the amended citizenship law.