Centre Notifies Rules To Enforce Citizenship Amendment Act 2019

The CAA, which seeks to fast-track the process for getting Indian citizenship for non-Muslim migrants who fled from persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014, was passed by the Parliament in 2019. However, the implementation of the law was put on hold in view of the massive country-wide protests which took place against it. The protests were compounded by the Government's proposal to introduce a National Register of Citizens (NRC) along with the implementation of the CAA.

The critics of the law object to the religion-based exclusion of refugees from the benefit of CAA, arguing that linking Indian citizenship with religion undermined the secular character of the country. Over a hundred writ petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the law. The Supreme Court, while agreeing to hear the matter, declined to stay the operation of the Act.

The Government, in its counter-affidavit, defended the Act, stating that is not affecting the citizenship of any Indian citizen and that mere under-inclusion of a category while granting benefit is not a ground to strike down a law.

As per the proviso introduced in Section 2(1)(b), migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain and Christian religions from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are eligible for citizenship by naturalization if they can establish their residency in India for five years instead of existing eleven years.