First, let us make it very clear that the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are two different things.
CAA only leads to granting citizenship to people from certain countries, and not taking away citizenship from anyone. There is confusion and apprehension among some people that their citizenship will be taken away. CAA grants citizenship to a certain class of people who have illegally migrated from three countries that have been declared as Islamic countries, and are governed by religious laws. It is for them that the central government has enacted the law.
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The Amendment of Section 2 in the Act states, “Provided that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st December 2014 and who has been exempted by the Central Government by or under Clause-C of Sub-Section (2) of Section 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, or from the application of the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946, or any rule or order made there under, shall not be treated as illegal migrant for the purposes of this Act.”
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The object of the law says the government is conferring citizenship on those people as they are considered minorities in their countries and are subjected to religious persecution, and that was the reason for their migration to India. The Act aims to protect their rights, but it doesn’t say that citizenship should be proved. People have the right to challenge it in the Supreme Court. And they have rightly done so. Some of them have approached the Supreme Court and raised their concerns, including the rationale of excluding certain communities and minorities from other neighbouring countries. The apex court is the appropriate authority to decide on those issues, and it is not right for people to take law into their hands while protesting against a law made by their own elected representatives.
As far as NRC is concerned, the process has not started. Confusion is being created that NRC is implemented, resulting in violence. That shows that those indulging in violence do not believe in the Constitution, democracy and the judiciary. They must also take note of the fundamental duties of citizens provided in the Constitution, which never permits violence.
(Justice Subhash B Adi former judge of the Karnataka High Court)