NEW DELHI: The controversial Citizenship Amendment Act is not going to be implemented till Jan next year as the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has sought another six months’ extension to frame the rules for the law that was notified nearly two years ago. Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the central government has sought extension till January 9 for framing rules of CAA.
He was replying to a question from Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on whether the government had missed the deadline to frame and notify CAA rules and the steps taken in this context. Nityanand Rai said that the committees on “Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been requested to grant further extension of time upto 09.01.2022 to frame the rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.”
Constitutional experts say that the rules of a legislation need to be framed within six months of getting President’s nod, it is for the fifth time that the government has sought extension for the framing of the rules.
CAA seeks to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The act aims to not consider any person who has arrived in India who had come to India till the cut off date of December 31, 2014, after facing religious persecution as an ‘illegal outsider’. The Act has drawn huge protests across the country since it was tabled.