Govt notifies CAA rules

New Delhi, Mar 11:  The Union Home Ministry on Monday notified the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), paving the way for granting of citizenship to people of certain faiths facing persecution in neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and having moved to India before 2015.

“Those immigrants qualifying for citizenship under CAA will have to submit applications in an online mode, for which a web portal has been created,” an MHA spokesman said.

The CAA was an integral part of the BJP's 2019 Lok Sabha polls manifesto.

The law would enable the granting of citizenship to people of non-Muslim faiths, mainly Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsi communities, who had migrated to India before December 31, 2014, from neighbouring nations because of religious persecution.

The CAA was enacted by the Parliament in December 2019 amid large-scale demonstrations from the Muslim community, backed by Opposition parties.

The announcement comes on the back of Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent assertions that the CAA will be implemented before the Lok Sabha elections, slated for April-May.

“CAA is an act of the country... it will be notified. CAA will come into effect before the election, nobody should have doubts about it,” the Home Minister had said.

The notification of the new law had been delayed as massive protests broke out across the nation with Muslims and Opposition parties demanding a rollback of the law calling it discriminatory.

They claimed that the Muslim community had been excluded from the CAA.

However, the Home Minister replied that all the minority communities being persecuted on religious lines in these countries had been included and Muslims were not included as they did not face religious persecution in these Islamic countries.

The Home Minister had reiterated in the Parliament that Indian citizens of the Muslim community do not need to fear anything, as this Bill would not affect their citizenship in any way.

He requested the Opposition not to do politics on this issue and divide people on communal lines.

“This bill aims at granting rather than taking away someone’s citizenship,” he said.

The Home Minister said that the grant of citizenship would be from the date and year of the entry into India and all the cases and legal proceedings against them would be closed, besides protecting their business and trade interests on an equal footing.

Even if the passports and visas of these minorities had expired, they would not be treated as illegal.

He also underlined that the population of minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh had reduced considerably over the years, as they were either killed or forced to change their religion, and thus were forced to flee to India.

The Home Minister said that the partition of India on religious lines and the subsequent failure of the Nehru-Liaqat pact of 1950 in protecting the rights and dignity of the minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh were the reasons for bringing this Bill.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was a major highlight of the BJP’s manifesto during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The CAA was passed on December 11, 2019, by the Parliament, seeking to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955.

The CAA facilitates expedited pathways to Indian citizenship for migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, specifically those belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, and Christian communities.

The eligibility extends to people, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, fleeing religious persecution in their countries of origin.

The amendment also relaxed the residence requirement for the naturalisation of these migrants from 11 years to 5 years.

The Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2019 said that the grant of citizenship would be from the date and year of entry into India and all the cases and legal proceedings against them would be closed, besides protecting their business and trade interests on an equal footing.

President Ram Nath Kovind on December 13, 2019, gave his assent, officially constituting it as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Muslim community members held widespread protests in December 2019 across the country.

The protests started in Assam on December 4, 2019, after the bill was introduced in the parliament. Protestors said that the move would cause a loss of their “political rights, culture and land rights” and motivate further migration from Bangladesh.

On December 15, 2019, major protests took place near Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi and protesters gathered at the Shaheen Bagh road and sat on a dharna blocking the traffic movement.

An FIR was registered by the Delhi Police on December 16, naming seven students as instigators including Asif Iqbal Tanha and Sharjeel Imam.

A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court in January 2020 by social activist-advocate Amit Sahni seeking directions to the Delhi Police chief and area DCPs to withdraw the closure of the stretch and the Okhla underpass.

A plea was filed in the Supreme Court on February 3, 2020, seeking the removal of Shaheen Bagh protestors, saying they were causing hardship to people by blocking arterial roads connecting Delhi to Noida.

Acknowledging that people have a fundamental right to protest, the Supreme Court on February 18, 2020, appointed two senior advocates Sanjay Hedge and Sadhana Ramachandran as interlocutors with the mandate to persuade anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi to end their blockade of a public road.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns suppressed the protests and discussions around the CAA.

During COVID-19, the Delhi government on March 16, 2020, announced that any gathering – religious, family, social, political or cultural - of over 50 people would not be allowed.

Home Minister Amit Shah on December 27, 2023, asserted that no one could stop the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as it was the law of the land and accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misleading people.

On January 3, 2024, reports emerged suggesting that rules for the CAA were prepared by the Central government and would be notified much before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

Union Minister Shantanu Thakur on January 28, 2024, said at a public rally that the CAA would be implemented across all states.

The government aims to modernise the citizenship-granting process by making it online, allowing applicants to apply even from their mobile phones.

Rules for the CAA’s implementation are expected to be issued before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections.