Centre makes BIG announcement for MINORITIES ahead of Gujarat Assembly elections

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday (October 31, 2022) issued a notification allowing Indian citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and currently living in two Gujarat districts. The decision, which has been taken under the Citizenship Act, 1955, comes ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections.

According to the official notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs, those Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians residing in two Gujarat districts -- Anand and Mehsana -- will be allowed to register as a citizen of India under section 5 or will be granted a certificate of naturalisation under section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and in accordance with the provisions of the Citizenship Rules, 2009. Such people living in these two districts will have to submit their applications online which will then be verified by the collector at the district level. 

The application and reports thereon shall be simultaneously made accessible online to the central government, the notification read.

The collector may make such inquiry as he considers necessary for ascertaining the suitability of the applicant and for that purpose can forward the application online to such agencies for verification and comments as may be required for completing such an inquiry, it added.

After completing the entire process, the collector, being satisfied with the suitability of the applicant, will grant the person the citizenship of India by registration or naturalisation and issue a certificate of registration or naturalisation, as the case may be, the notification said.

This, reportedly, is not the first time that the district magistrates or collectors have been delegated such powers. Similar orders were also issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2016, 2018 and 2021 empowering DM in several districts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Chhattisgarh to grant citizenship certificates to migrants from the six communities who entered India on valid documents.

The notification, however, is not related to the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA), which was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and the subsequent presidential nod. The CAA provides for granting Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, but as the rules under the Act have not been framed by the government yet, no one so far could be granted citizenship under it.

According to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should have been framed within six months of presidential assent or seek an extension from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

In January 2020, the home ministry notified that the Act would come into force from January 10, 2020, but it later requested the parliamentary committees in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to give it some more time to implement rules as the country was going through its worst ever health crisis due to the Covid pandemic.

Last fortnight, the Union home ministry had been granted yet another extension by the Parliamentary Committees on Subordinate Legislation in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to frame the rules of the CAA.

While the permission has been granted from the Rajya Sabha till December 31, 2022, the Lok Sabha has granted time till January 9, 2023. This was the seventh extension given to the home ministry to frame the rules under the CAA.

(With agency inputs)