Four years after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 was passed by Parliament, the legislation is yet to be implemented despite the administrative framework in place as it awaits political nod from the BJP-led Union government.
After the law that fast-tracks citizenship to six undocumented non-Muslim communities — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Christian and Jain — from the neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 9, 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sought nine extensions from a parliamentary committee to frame rules that will govern the Act.
Without the rules being notified, the Act cannot be implemented. The latest extension granted by the parliamentary panel on subordinate legislation to frame the rules is till January 9, 2024 in Lok Sabha and March 30, 2024 in Rajya Sabha, as stated by Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni at a public event in South 24 Parganas, West Bengal last month.
‘Rules ready’
A Ministry official said, on the condition of anonymity, that rules were ready and the online portal was also in place. The entire process will be online and the applicants will have to declare the year when they entered India without travel documents. It is to be noted that CAA benefits undocumented minorities from the three countries.
Protests around CAA and the National Population Register (NPR) scheduled to be updated in 2020 but indefinitely delayed initially due to COVID-19, which is a first step towards the creation of National Register of Citizens (NRC), led to violent street protests and killing of several people across the country. Between December 2019 and March 2020, as many as 83 persons were killed in police firing and riots in Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Meghalaya and Delhi after the CAA was passed.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here .