The Central government has notified the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA). This came weeks after union home minister Amit Shah said the law, which was passed in 2019, would be implemented before the Lok Sabha elections.
The CAA makes it easier for non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to get Indian citizenship. The law is applicable to all migrants who arrived in India on and before December 31, 2014.
The CAA amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 to provide a path to Indian citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis who migrated from neighbouring Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, before December 31, 2014.
Under the 2019 amendment of the act, migrants who entered India till December 31, 2014, and had suffered “religious persecution or fear or religious persecution” in their country of their origin would be made eligible for accelerated citizenship.
The 2019 amendment to CAA further relaxed the residence requirement for naturalisation of these migrants from twelve years to just six. The Intelligence Bureau report on CAA said that there will be over 30,000 immediate beneficiaries from the act, once the rules of the same are notified.
The CAA was passed by the Parliament on December 11, 2019, and was notified on December 12 of the same year. However, the act was not implemented as the rules were not notified.
After over four years of amending the act, it was reported that the Union Home Ministry would notify the rules of CAA before the Lok Sabha elections, tentatively scheduled for April-May 2024.
According to the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs for 2021-22, from April 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021, a total of 1,414 foreigners belonging to these non-Muslim minority communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan were given Indian citizenship by registration or naturalization under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
From December 2019 to February 2020, there was a wave of anti-CAA protests across the country, which eventually led to the Northeast Delhi riots.
After the law was passed in 2019, the Union Home Ministry took extensions at regular intervals from the committees for framing the rules for eligible people to submit applications for Indian citizenship.
The Centre notified the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act on March 11, 2024. These rules come months after Union Home Minister Amit Shah promised that this would be done before the 2024 national polls due this summer.
According to the rules, the entire procedure to submit the applications for Indian citizenship under the law will be online for all those eligible for applying.
