The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from Centre and Assam government on a plea challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued a notice to the Centre and the Assam government and asked them to file a response within two weeks.

Nagarikatwa Aain Songsudhan Birodhi Mancha, a forum against Citizenship Act Amendment Bill, has sought to declare the Passport (Entry into India) Amendment Rules, 2015 and the Foreigners (Amendment) Act as "discriminatory, arbitrary and illegal".

The petition opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on the ground that it had introduced religion as a new principle into the citizenship law and termed it as "communally motivated humanitarianism".

"The illegal immigrants who are to be granted the benefit of this legislation are to qualify for citizenship only on the basis of religion, a requirement that goes against one of the basic tenets of the Indian Constitution, secularism," the petition stated.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8, seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.

On February 13, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 lapsed in the Rajya Sabha, amid protests by the members of the House.

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