NEW DELHI: Four years after it enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to fast-track citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the Centre continues to grant citizenship to foreigners under the Act 1955.
In its annual report for 2022-23 released on Saturday, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that in eight months last year, a total of 1,739 Citizenship Certificates were granted to foreigners under the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955.
The CAA could not be implemented as rules have not been formed under the new law. In August this year, the Ministry sought its eighth extension from the parliament committee seeking time till September-end to frame the rules.
The law, passed in December 2019, seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim ‘persecuted minorities’— Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians— from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, who came to India on December 31, 2014.
The Ministry in its report also said that the Centre has now delegated powers to 31 district collectors and home Secretaries of nine states to grant citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The government granted citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from the three countries in several districts of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab in 2016, 2018, and 2021. Legal experts told this paper that non-action in drafting the rules of the CAA and giving citizenship to non-Muslim migrants under the pre-2019 law raises serious questions about the centre’s intentions. The ministry further said the CAA is a focused legislation which seeks to provide relaxation to specific communities.