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New Delhi The Union government on Monday issued the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, four years after the controversial law was passed to fast-track citizenship to non-Muslims who entered India from three neighbouring countries — Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh — on or before December 31, 2014.
Read here: CAA rules notified: BJP fulfils another promise made in 2019 poll manifesto
Announcing the notification, which was expected after several ministers and officials over the past few months said that the rules would be released before this summer’s general elections, Union home minister Amit Shah said on X: “The Modi government notified the Citizenship (amendment) rules, 2024. These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation… With this notification, PM Shri @narendramodi Ji has delivered on another commitment and realised the promise of the makers of our constitution to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians living in those countries.”
The rules pave the way for granting citizenship to persecuted minorities belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. The 39-page notification issued by the home ministry stated the rules will come into force from Monday, the date of publication in the official gazette.
The announcement of the rules, in keeping with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) promise in its 2019 manifesto, was criticised by Opposition parties who said the timing of the notification is linked to the coming elections. The law itself was passed in December 2019, but the underlying rules were not framed. Its passage resulted in protests, which petered out only with the Covid-19 pandemic, and a clutch of petitions that remain before the Supreme Court.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said she would oppose CAA if it curtailed Indian citizens’ existing rights in any manner.
Banerjee also said she apprehended that CAA could be used as a possible precursor to implementing a National Registry of Citizens (NRC) across the nation.
“We will oppose NRC implementation at all costs. I am only worried whether the new CAA rules will make the previous entitlements of our citizens invalid. Will the documents they hold lose value now?” the TMC chief said.
The CAA rules, 2024, have a provision which states that refugees from six minority communities from three countries applying for grant of citizenship by registration or naturalisation will have to submit an application, an affidavit verifying the correctness of the statements made in it, another affidavit from an Indian citizen testifying to their character, and a declaration that they are familiar with one of the languages specified in the eighth schedule to the Constitution of India.
The rules say that the application will have to be submitted in electronic form to an empowered committee through the district-level committee, which may be notified by the central government, and be supported by documents such as a copy of passport issued by the Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh governments — birth certificate, an identity document of any other kind, land or tenancy records, or any document that shows that either of the parents or grandparents or great grandparents of the applicant were a citizen of one of the three countries. The rules state that these documents will be admissible even beyond their validity period.
Applicants also have to provide proof that they entered India before December 31, 2014, which can take the form of either a visa and immigration stamp, registration certificate from the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), or slip issued by the Census enumerators in India, government-issued licence or certificate or permit in India (including driving license, Aadhaar number, ration card , or marriage certificate issued in India etc).
“The above documents should have been issued by an Indian Authority and will be admissible even beyond their validity period. The documents should establish that the applicant had entered India on or before December 31, 2014,” the rules state.
Once the application is submitted, the district-level committee, headed by a designated officer, will verify the documents and also administer “the oath of allegiance” to the applicant, the rules state.
“In case an applicant fails to appear in person to subscribe the application and take oath of allegiance despite giving reasonable opportunities, the district level committee shall forward such application to the empowered committee for consideration of refusal,” they add.
Once an application is approved, the applicants will be issued a digital certificate.
The rules also state the applicants will have to provide an eligibility certificate issued by a locally reputed community institution confirming that the person belongs to “Hindu/ Sikh/ Buddhist/ Jain/ Parsi/ Christian community and continues to be a member of the above mentioned community.”
The delay:
Even after the law was passed by the Parliament on December 11, 2019, and notified within 24 hours, CAA could not come into effect as rules were not notified . According to the parliamentary procedure, the rules for any legislation should be framed within six months of presidential assent, or else an extension is needed from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The Union home ministry took extensions at regular intervals from the committees for framing the rules.
Shah has promised over the last few months that the rules would be in place before the 2024 national polls due this summer. He said on December 27 last year that “no one could stop the implementation of CAA as it is the law of the land”, and accused West Bengal chief minister Banerjee of misleading people on the issue. Addressing a party meeting in Kolkata, Shah said it is the BJP’s commitment to implement CAA.
The promise of implementing CAA was a major poll plank of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha and the 2021 assembly polls in West Bengal.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said the law creates communal divisions and affirmed that it will not be put into effect in the southern state.
“The government has repeatedly stated that CAA, which treats Muslim minorities as second-class citizens, will not be implemented in Kerala. That remains the position. All of Kerala will stand united in opposing this communally divisive law,” Vijayan said in a statement.
A senior home ministry official who asked not to be named said that “many misconceptions have been spread regarding the CAA over last four years. It is a law to give citizenship, not take away citizenship of any Indian citizen, irrespective of religion”.
“CAA removes legal barriers to rehabilitation and citizenship to members of these six communities. It will give a dignified life to refugees who have suffered for decades, and such citizenship rights will protect their cultural, linguistic, and social identity. Besides, it will also ensure economic, commercial, free movement, and property purchase rights,” the official said.
A second official, who also asked not to be named, said the implementation of the law was delayed by the pandemic.
The Union government’s move in October 2022 to empower collectors in two districts of Gujarat to grant citizenship certificates to non-Muslims from neighbouring countries under the Citizenship Act, 1955, prompted the Matuas of Bengal to renew their demand for the implementation of CAA. BJP leaders in Bengal said at the time that this was the first step towards implementing CAA.
The Matuas are part of the Dalit Namasudra community, which migrated from then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1947 and during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. They form a sizeable chunk of voters in the north and south Bengal districts bordering Bangladesh.
The defence:
In its submission to the Supreme Court, the government has maintained that there are sound reasons and a valid exercise of legislative powers to pick communities as well as choose only certain countries to bring within the fold of CAA. It added that the subject matter is outside the realm of judicial review.
Indigenous groups in the northeast have opposed CAA saying it could lead to an influx of undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, undocumented migrants who do not belong to the six communities, have raised the prospect of the law being used to target them. The home ministry has maintained that CAA has nothing to do with deportation of any foreigner from India. “The deportation process of any foreigner irrespective of his religion or country is implemented as per the mandate of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and/or The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.
“These two laws govern entry, stay, movement within India and exit from India of all foreigners irrespective of their religion or country. Therefore, the usual deportation process would apply to any illegal foreigner staying in India. CAA is not to harass anyone,” added the first home ministry official.
Read here: CAA notified: MHA forms panel, lays down SOP for granting citizenship
MHA issued a separate notification on Monday for the formation of an empowered committee and district level committees to grant citizenship under CAA.
It also said the empowered committees in the states or Union territories shall be headed by the director (census operations) of the state or Union territory concerned and shall consist of members including an officer in the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau not below the rank of deputy secretary, jurisdictional Foreigners Regional Registration Officer, the State Informatics Officer of National Informatics Centre of the State or Union Territory concerned; Post Master General of the State or Union Territory concerned. It said that a from the office of Principal Secretary (Home) or Additional Chief Secretary (Home) of the State Government or Union Territory concerned and representative of jurisdictional Divisional Railway Manager of Railways can be invitees in the committee.
District committees, the notification said, will be headed by the jurisdictional senior superintendent or superintendent of post.
The notification further said that the empowered committee can make inquiry it considers necessary for ascertaining the suitability of the applicant, including obtaining report from the security agency.