Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019
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The Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 which received the President’s assent to become an Act. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The Citizenship Act,1955 provides various ways in which citizenship may be acquired. It provides for citizenship by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation and by incorporation of the territory into India.
In addition, it regulates the registration of Overseas Citizen of India Cardholders (OCIs) and their rights. An OCI is entitled to some benefits such as a multiple-entry, multipurpose lifelong visa to visit India.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act grants citizenship to the Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhist, Jains and Parsis fromfrom India’s three Muslim-majority neighbours – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who had arrived in India before 31 December 2014, facing religious persecution in the three nations.
This amendment is of the Citizenship Act, 1955 which requires the applicant to haveresided in India for 11 of the previous 14 years. Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016relaxes this requirement from 11 years to six years, for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from the three nations.The Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019further reduces the period of naturalisation for such group of persons from six years to five years.
CAA not applicable to Areas
- The Act does not apply to tribal areas of Tripura, Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya because of being included in the 6th Schedule of the Constitution.
- Also areas that fall under the Inner Limit notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, will also be outside the Act’s purview. This keeps almost entire Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland out of the ambit of the Act.
Why protest against CAA 2019
In the northeast, the protest is against the Act’s implementation in their areas, as people fear that if implemented, the Act will cause a rush of immigrants that may alter their demographic and linguistic uniqueness.
The CAA 219 contradicts the Assam Accord (1985), which states that illegal migrants, irrespective of religion, heading in from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971, would be deported.
A huge no. of illegal Bangladeshi migrants are present in Assam and they have inalienably altered the demography of the state, besides putting a severe strain on the state’s resources and economy.
It is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution (which guarantees the right to equality and applicable to both the citizens and foreigners) and the principle of secularism enshrined in the preamble of the constitution.
The Act does not covered several other refugees that include Tamils from Sri Lanka and Hindu Rohingya from Myanmar.
It will be difficult to differentiate between illegal migrants and those persecuted.
The base of the CAA is religious oppression in these three countries and thus, may worsen our bilateral ties with them.
| How is citizenship acquired in India? In India, citizenship is regulated by the Citizenship Act, 1955. The Act specifies that citizenship may be acquired in India through five methods – by birth in India, by descent, through registration, by naturalisation (extended residence in India), and by incorporation of territory into India. |
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