CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT (CAA), 2019
INTRODUCTION
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed by parliament on 11th December 2019 and it was implemented on 10th January 2020 under subsection (2) of sec.1 of Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Changes in the standards of qualifying an individual as citizenship of India has been on focus’ need on different events that started 64 years prior when Citizenship Act, 1955 was passed and it likewise experienced six amendments (1986, 1992, 2003, 2005, 2016 and 2019) with the recent Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
This Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 to allow Indian Citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from the three neighbouring countries i.e. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh because these countries are Muslim-majority countries. Under this amendment six religions i.e. Hindu, Sikh, Parsee, Christian, Buddhist and Jains will be offered Indian Citizenship by naturalization. Earlier one of the necessities for the citizenship by naturalization is that the candidate probably lived in India during the most recent years, and for 11 of the past 14 years yet now the Act loosens up this long term prerequisite to 6 years and like prior they will not be, at this point imprisoned under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport Act, 1920. So 31st December, 2014 will be the cut-off date after which any individual moving to India from neighboring nations will be considered for citizenship. CAA won’t apply to areas under the 6th schedule of the Constitution (Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram) and also not applicable to States that are under the inner-line permit government (Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram). And Kerala became the first state to pass resolution against CAA followed by Punjab.
In India citizenship is regulated by the Citizenship Act, 1955 and this Act specified that citizenship can be acquired in India by 5 methods:
1.Citizenship by Birth – This is defined under Section 3 of the Act. In 1955, the Act specified that anyone born in India on or after 1st July, 1950 will be citizen of India by birth. The rule of citizenship and it was amended later also for limiting citizenship, so after amendment people were citizens by birth that were born between 1st July, 1950 and 1st July, 1987. But again it was amended in 2003 and it was stated that those who are born after 3rd December, 2004 would be citizens of India by birth if their one parent is a Citizen of India and the other must not be an illegal migrant.
2. Citizenship by Decent – This is defined under Section 4 of the Act. This provides citizenship to those people who are born outside India but who has at least one parent that is Indian. Citizenship is granted to them provided that the birth is registered within 1 year with the Indian consulate in the jurisdiction.
3. Citizenship by Registration – This is defined under Section 5(1) of the Act. According to this rule, people get Indian citizenship through marriage or ancestry.
4. Citizenship by Naturalization – This is defined under Section 6 of the Act. This provides that Section 6 of the Act provides that a certificate of naturalization can be granted to a person who is not an illegal immigrant and has resided in India continuously for 12 months before making an application. Moreover, in 14 years before the 12 months period, the person must have lived for at least 11 years in India. But now this 11 year term is relaxed to 5 years for the people covered under the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
5. Citizenship by Incorporation of Territory - This is defined under Section 7 of the Act. This provides that people can get citizenship of India if the territory they were or residing becomes a part of India.
There are also 3 situations or methods under which an Indian citizen may lose his or her Indian citizenship:
1. By Renunciation – This is defined under Section 8 of the Act. It states that if any Indian citizen is also a citizen of any other country and he or she renounces his citizenship by the declaration in the recommended way, he or she ends to citizen of India.
2. By Termination - This is defined under Section 9 of the Act. It states that any citizen who acquired citizenship of India by naturalization, registration or otherwise, has voluntarily acquired citizenship of any other country at any time between 26th January, 1950 to 30th December, 1955 shall have ceased to be citizen of India.
3. Deprivation – This is defined under Section 10 of the Act. This situation provides power to the government to deprive a citizen of his citizenship by issuing an order against him. Government can issue order against a citizen who had obtained citizenship by fraud, misrepresentation, disloyalty towards the Indian Constitution, communicating with enemy country during war and mainly when a citizen is imprisoned for longer than two years within five years of registration or naturalizations or residing outside India for longer than seven years at a time.
The Act also states that the registration of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders can be cancelled if they violate any law.
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.) “CAA and Article 14 of the India Constitution” by Saroj Chada in The Times of India[1]
This article mainly tells that Indian Constitution is material to Indian residents not it can’t be applied to any individual who isn’t a resident of the country. The individuals who are offered citizenship under this Act are not citizens of India so in what manner can be they exploit under Article 14 of Indian Constitution.
2.) “The Poisonous Law: The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019” by Dr. Narender Nagarwal in Research Gate[2]
This article states that most recent CAA tries to allow populace rights to strict minorities of neighbouring nations based on religion, which is on a very basic level illogical and furthermore against the Article 14 of the Indian Constitution. The "sensible grouping" safeguard taken by the public authority not legitimate under the eyes of law. And it also includes that CAA hits Preamble, Article 15, 25, 29 and 30 of Indian Constitution besides Article 51C and Article 253 that puts obligation on India to respect International Law.
3.) “What is Citizenship Amendment Act” by Apurva Vishwanath and Kabir Firaque in Indian Express[3]
This Article helped the researcher to better understand the reasons behind such strong protest that was foreseen in Assam and also in other states like Delhi, Kerala, West Bengal etc. for this particular act also explaining the Citizenship act of 1955 and the various ways through which citizenship is granted to the people of India. It further discussed about how people would-be getting citizenship now under this act and what exactly is the reason behind the protests that went around the Country with respect to this Citizenship Amendment act. It further discussed about the legal and constitutional importance of the topic and why is this topic one of the most debatable topic around this time.
4.) “Secularism and Citizenship Amendment Act” by Abhinav Chandrachud in Taylor & Francis Online[4]
This article inspects the provisions of the lately ratified Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 in opposition of acquirement citizenship provisions provided in our constitution. It squabbles that by enunciating the liking with regards to the non-Muslim settlers and discerning the Muslim settlers, the CAA nearly redolent the policies embraced by the Indian constitution during the time of partition. Nevertheless, it will contend that the policies under the Citizenship Amendment Act ,2019 is vague in today’s scenario as the standards or conditions of Indian citizenship is totally different of what it was at that time. This article showed that the CAA is discriminatory on several ground indicating the mala fide reasons that it was implemented for.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research paper is going to follow a qualitative method to look into the topic i.e. “Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019(CAA)”. The researcher had also adopted practical approach to study the topic to gain much practical knowledge about the topic because the topic is very important in respect to the right to equality under Article 14 as this Act grants citizenship on the basis of religion. The researcher examined this topic in great depths and had gone through a numerous works that have been formerly published. The researcher had gone through various secondary sources available on different authentic legal websites apart from this; legal databases like Manupatra, Jstor and Hein Online were used to study this concerned topic legally. After going through the said sources the researcher came up with the following questions that would further be answered in this research paper
Research Questions
The questions for this research are as follows:
1.) What is CAA and whether CAA is good or bad?
2.) Can state pass resolution against CAA?
3.) Which article of Indian Constitution is controversial in CAA and some other articles are related to CAA?
4.) How NRC is different from CAA?
5.) Who is illegal migrant and can he or she acquire citizenship of India?
DATA ANALYSIS
The Research Paper defines CAA and talks about its history and what periodic amendments were made in relation to the Act and how they affected it. It also tells how a foreigner can acquire citizenship of India by different methods and tries to explain the areas where it is not applicable in India due to inner line permit regime and 6th schedule of Indian constitution. It also point out the controversies related to the Act as why this is made only for six religions and only three countries are included in it. Citizenship Amendment Act, 1995 is amended 6 times till now:
1. 1986 - This amendment stated that if a person wants to be a citizen of India, one of the parents had to be an Indian citizen during the time of birth.
2. 1992 - This amendment stated that if a person is born outside India then he or she shall be citizen of India by descent, on or after 26th January, 1950, but before 10th December, 1992, if his or her father is an Indian citizen at the time of his birth. This amendment also replaces references to ‘male person’ with ‘persons’.
3. 2003 - This amendment stated the term of ‘illegal immigrants who could be imprisoned or deported and this amendment also instructed the Indian government to conduct a National Register of Citizens (NRC). This amendment was done under the P.M Atal Bihari Vajpayee and it inserted Section 14A, that provides for counting headcount of Indian Citizens for preparation of NRC.
4. 2005 - This amendment stated that to provide accommodation to the increasing overseas Indian population, at the turn of the millennium, the parliament introduced the concepts of Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and Person of Indian Origin (PIO). And they were granted limited citizenship rights.
5. 2015 - This amendment stated the idea of an ‘Overseas Citizens of India Cardholders’ (OCC) that replaced and merged OCIs and PIOs. The merging of these two terms provided PIO cardholders the benefits extended to OCIs.
The government of India issued two notifications exempting some groups of illegal immigrants from provisions of Foreigners Act, 1946 and Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.
6. 2019 - This amendment states that illegal immigrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Parsee communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh will be eligible for naturalized citizenship of India if they arrived in India before 31st December, 2014. The duration of residence is also reduced from 11 years to 6 years.
This research paper tells about various articles, sections in relation to the Act and also provides answers to some questions:
1.) What is CAA and whether it is good or bad?
CAA means Citizenship Amendment Act which was passed in 2019 and came in affect from 10th January, 2020 under sub section (2) of sec.1 of Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
As government made an amendment in relation to Citizenship Act for six religions (excluding Muslims) so, there begins a controversy that why Muslims are excluded from this amendment and Muslim community says that there right to equality (Article 14) is violated. The government of India justify their act by stating that they had done this because these six communities are exploited by Muslims as the majority population in these three countries are of Muslims. According to the Author the same has been done just to protect other six religions from exploitation.
2.) Can state pass resolution against CAA?
The state can challenge this amendment passed by parliament but cannot oppose it as citizenship as a subject is present in the Union List. Accordingly, Article 246 of the Constitution makes Parliament the sole power to enact on the issues identified with citizenship. And Article 245 declares that “no law made by Parliament shall be deemed invalid on the ground that it would have extra territorial operation”. Article 256 makes it compulsory for the state governments to comply with any law passed by parliament. So, in this way, the states can't dismiss a law passed by parliament.
3.) Which articles of Indian Constitution are controversial to CAA?
Article 14 of the Indian constitution is controversial to CAA as this article guarantees equality on the basis of caste, religion, sex and place, etc. but the act allows illegal immigrants to seek citizenship on the basis of religion.
And some other articles related to CAA are Article 368, 246 and Article 256.
4.) How NRC is different from CAA?
The National Register of Citizens, the process finished in Assam. It eliminates unlawful settlers from India. As per NRC, an individual, to be qualified to be a resident, would need to demonstrate that possibly they or their precursors were in India at the latest March 24, 1971, the eve of the Bangladesh War. There are about 1.9 million people who are residing in Assam without valid documents. But CAA allows foreigners of those six religions from the 3 countries stated earlier to be citizens of India by getting citizenship. So the NRC has nothing to do with religion, though, the Citizenship Act depends on certain beliefs.
5.) Who is illegal migrant and can he or she acquire citizenship of India?
An illegal migrant is a foreigner who either entered in India illegally i.e. without valid documents like passport and visa or who entered India, but stays beyond the time period permitted to him or her in relation to travel documents. And an illegal migrant cannot acquire Indian citizenship as he or she is prohibited from it under constitution of India. An illegal immigrant can also be prosecuted, deported or prisoned in India but in 2015 and 2016, the Indian government exempted some groups of illegal migrants from being imprisoned and deported. These groups include the illegal migrants who came in India from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh on or before 31st December, 2014 and belong to the same six religions which are concerned in Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
CONCLUSION
This research paper clearly states all the facts and controversies about Citizenship Amendment Act and tries to explain them in a detailed way. Due to this act relationship of India with other countries may also get affected as it is in relation to only three countries. It will also impact government’s relationship with religions other than Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsees and Christians. Though the action is equally right and wrong as on one side it’s right because there are many people in these three countries belonging to those six religions who are exploited by Muslims (Religion in majority) and for safeguarding them Indian Government had amended the act but on the other hand it also seems wrong because it entitles illegal immigrants to get citizenship on the basis of religion, which violates the spirit of equality. if government had allowed Muslims also to be a part of this amendment then this amendment would be no longer effective. So the main opposition in this Act is that it is making illegal migrants eligible for citizenship of India on the basis of ‘religion’, which violates equality under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution and promotes discrimination on the basis of sex, caste, religion, place etc. Many political leaders, including NDA alliance partners have also opposed this Act and stated that “granting citizenship of India to foreigners will undermine the ethnic communities living in regions.”
So the act is passed for safeguarding these six communities in these three neighbouring countries from exploitation by Muslims as these are Muslim majority countries and other communities are not treated fairly.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
· Saroj Chada, CAA & Article 14 of Indian Constitution, The Times of India, 2020 (January 29, 2020), https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-how-to-be-a-citizen-of-india-earlier-now-6165960/
· Narender Nagarwal, The Poisonous Law: The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, Research Gate, 2019 ( 24 December 2019), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337948797_The_Poisonous_Law_The_Citizenship_Amendment_Act_2019
· Apurva Vishwanath and Kabir Firaque, What is Citizenship Amendment Act, The Indian Express, 2021(18th January 2021), https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-how-to-be-a-citizen-of-india-earlier-now-6165960/
· Abhinav Chandrachud, Secularism and Citizenship Amendment Act, Taylor & Francis Online, 2020
WRITER:
NAME: SANKET DHULL
COLLEGE: Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
[1] Saroj Chada, CAA & Article 14 of Indian Constitution, The Times of India, 2020 (January 29, 2020), https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-how-to-be-a-citizen-of-india-earlier-now-6165960/ [2] Narender Nagarwal, The Poisonous Law: The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, Research Gate, 2019 ( 24 December 2019), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337948797_The_Poisonous_Law_The_Citizenship_Amendment_Act_2019 [3] Apurva Vishwanath and Kabir Firaque, What is Citizenship Amendment Act, The Indian Express, 2021(18th January 2021), https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-how-to-be-a-citizen-of-india-earlier-now-6165960/ [4] Abhinav Chandrachud, Secularism and Citizenship Amendment Act, Taylor & Francis Online, 2020
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