Citizenship Amendment Act to take effect today after Centre announces plan to notify CAA Rules

 CAA had received the assent of the President of India on December 12, 2019. However, the CAA Rules were yet to be notified meaning that the law stayed in limbo for the last four years.

Bar & Bench, Mar 11, 2024 : The Central government has announced that it will notify the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 later today which would effectively bring into force the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 (CAA).

The CAA, which had triggered large scale riots in Delhi in February 2020, had received the assent of the President of India on December 12, 2019, and was later notified in the gazette. However, the CAA Rules were yet to be notified meaning that the law stayed in limbo for the last four years.

The CAA and Rules aim to grant citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

The CAA amends Section 2 of the Citizenship Act of 1955 which defines “illegal migrants”.

It added a new proviso to Section 2(1)(b) of the Citizenship Act. As per the same, persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, and who have been exempted by the Central government under the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, or the Foreigners Act, 1946, shall not be treated as “illegal migrant”. Consequently, such persons shall be eligible to apply for citizenship under the 1955 Act.

However, the law specifically excludes the Muslim community from the proviso, triggering protests across the country and a slew of petitions before the Supreme Court.

The petitioners challenging the law have submitted that the CAA discriminates against Muslims on the basis of religion. Such religious segregation is without any reasonable differentiation and violates right to quality under Article 14, it has been contended.

Amid nationwide protests against the legislation, the Supreme Court in January 2020 had issued notice in a batch of over 140 petitions, without staying the Act.

The Central government in its affidavit before the Supreme Court has said that the CAA does not affect the legal, democratic or secular rights of any of the Indian citizens.

The government has said that the existing regime for obtaining citizenship of India by foreigners of any country continues to be untouched by the CAA and remains the same.

The petitions are pending before the top court.