Supreme Court questions inclusion of CAA applicants in electoral rolls

Supreme Court says citizenship must be granted before applicants can be added to electoral rolls, declining to fix timelines for pending CAA applications

The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned how individuals who have applied for citizenship under the relaxation provided by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), could be provisionally added to electoral rolls before their citizenship status is officially determined. A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a plea by an NGO, which sought directions for the inclusion of migrants from Bangladesh, eligible for Indian citizenship under the CAA, in West Bengal’s electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. 

The NGO claimed that numerous applications submitted by refugees remained unprocessed. Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Karuna Nundy argued that citizenship should be deemed effective from the date of application and that delays in processing could exclude eligible applicants from the ongoing revision of electoral rolls. 

The bench, however, questioned the maintainability of the plea, observing that no relief could be granted until the applicants’ citizenship was formally granted. 

“You are not yet citizens. The amended law allows you to apply, but each claim must be examined, whether you belong to a specified minority, whether you came from the specified countries, and whether you are within India. The competent authority must determine this first. You cannot put the cart before the horse,” CJI Kant remarked.

 

Justice Bagchi added, “First you acquire citizenship, then comes entry into the electoral rolls.”

 

Nundy urged the court to fix a timeline for deciding the pending applications, citing a precedent where the court had prescribed a six-month deadline for police verification in government recruitment. She sought a similar time-bound direction for CAA applications, requesting that all applications filed to date be resolved by February 2026. The bench, however, declined to impose such a timeline.

 

The court said it could, at best, facilitate the process of determining citizenship claims.

 

“We can only ensure the determination of your status; nothing more,” the CJI clarified.

 

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission of India, stated that the responsibility for deciding CAA applications rested with the Union government.

 

“We have no role to play in citizenship matters,” he said.

 

The court issued notice to the Union of India through the office of the Attorney General and directed that a copy of the petition be served on the Solicitor General. The case will be heard next week.