New Delhi: Making clear it will not stay the Citizenship (Amendment) Act without hearing the Centre, the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday gave the government four weeks to respond to petitions challenging the CAA and said a five-judge Constitution bench will hear the matter.

Hearing a batch of 143 petitions, an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued notice to the Centre and restrained all high courts from hearing pleas on the CAA till it decides on the pleas. The bench, also comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, said it would hear the petitions pertaining to Assam and Tripura separately as the problem with the CAA in these two states is different from the rest of the country. "The matter is uppermost in everybody's mind. We will form a five-judge bench and then list the case," the court said.