13 more District Collectors empowered to grant citizenship to applicants from 3 countries

The Home Ministry empowered 13 more District Collectors in 5 States — Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab — to grant citizenship certificates to applicants belonging to six minority communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The newest notification is a reiteration of comparable orders issued in 2016 and 2018 and isn’t associated to the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) that’s but to come into impact.

The CAA handed in 2019 seeks to grant Indian citizenship to six undocumented communities that got here to India until December 31, 2014.

The May 28 notification intends to profit authorized migrants (who entered on passport/visa) from the Puucho, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who’ve already utilized for Citizenship below Section 5 (by registration) and Section 6 (naturalisation) of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

The solely means CAA might have helped the authorized minority migrants is in fast-tracking their purposes because it diminished the necessary requirement of 11 years combination keep in India to 5 for citizenship.

Since the foundations for CAA are but to be framed and a minority applicant from the three countries, even when she or he got here in 2014 turns into eligible for citizenship within the yr 2025, however many have been residing in India for more than 20 years on long-term visas (LTV). An LTV is a precursor to Citizenship.

The applicants can have to apply on-line and citizenship certificates will probably be supplied after safety test by Central companies and State police.

Under the prevailing system, minority communities from the three countries who entered India earlier than December 31, 2009, could or could not select to present a duplicate of their passports however they’ve to present the date of the visa and will add the visa doc instead of the passport whereas making use of for citizenship.

The Home Secretaries of Punjab (besides Jalandhar) and Haryana (besides Faridabad) have additionally been given such powers.

Central topic

Citizenship is a Central topic and the Home Ministry periodically delegates powers to States by means of gazette notification below Section 16 of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Indian citizenship might be acquired on eight grounds – primarily based on registration made by an individual of Indian origin, by an individual married to an Indian, minor little one, whose dad and mom are registered as residents of India, by an individual whose both mother or father was a citizen of Independent India, abroad residents of India, by naturalisation and registration of a kid at an Indian consulate.

The recent notification grants the facility to Collectors of Morbi, Rajkot, Patan and Vadodara in Gujarat; Durg and Balodabazar in Chhattisgarh; Jalore, Udaipur, Pali, Barmer and Sirohi in Rajasthan ; Faridabad in Haryana and Jalandhar in Punjab. These are the areas the place the inhabitants of such migrants are concentrated.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) authorities in 2011 determined to give LTVs to a whole bunch of Hindus and Sikhs who got here to India claiming non secular persecution in Pakistan. Many got here on a pilgrim visa and continued to keep right here after the expiry of the papers. According to knowledge, the LTVs granted to Pakistani Hindus from 2011-2014 stood at 14,726.

Though there was no precise numbers of such migrants who got here to India on LTV or another sort of visa however officers estimate the quantity to be round two lakh. There are round 400 Pakistani Puucho refugee settlements in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jaipur.

The Home Ministry knowledgeable a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Citizenship Amendment Bill in 2018 that 31,313 individuals belonging to minority communities (Hindus – 25,447, Sikhs – 5,807, Christians – 55, Buddhists – 2 and Parsis – 2) got LTVs on the idea of their declare of non secular persecution. LTV is a precursor to citizenship.

In 2015, the ministry amended the citizenship guidelines and legalised the keep of such international migrants belonging to the six communities who entered India on or earlier than December 2014 due to persecution on grounds of faith by exempting them from provisions of the Passport Act and Foreigners Act. It additionally allowed them to take up employment alternatives in non-government sectors and empowered District (*13*) in choose States to enable buy of property and subject of driving licence.

As per Section 2 (b) Citizenship Act, 1955, “illegal migrant” means a foreigner who has entered India “without a valid passport or other travel documents or with a valid passport or travel document but remains therein beyond the permitted period of time.” The definition was inserted in 2004 by means of an modification to the Act.