Thu, Dec 05, 2024 | Jumada al-Aakhirah 3, 1446 | DXB ktweather icon0°C

India: Two Gujarat districts get right to grant citizenship to minorities

According to officials, the District Collectors of Mehsana and Anand have been given this right which comes under the Citizenship Amendment Act

Published: Wed 2 Nov 2022, 8:15 AM

  • By
  • ANI

Top Stories

Representative purposes only (Photo: AFP)

Representative purposes only (Photo: AFP)

Under a new rule by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the District Collectors have the right to investigate people and give them citizenship, informed officials.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs has made the entire process of getting citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh quite simple. Under the new rule, now the Collectors have the right to investigate people and give them citizenship," said Anand Collector DS Gadhavi.

According to officials, the District Collectors of Mehsana and Anand have been given the right to grant citizenship.

A resident of Tarapur in Anand, Mithali Maheshwari, who belongs to Sindh in Pakistan applied for citizenship, and claims she is happy with the decision of the government.

Her parents had already got Indian citizenship in 2019 itself, but she, her elder sister, and her younger brother had not got citizenship yet.

Currently, Mithali and her elder sister have applied for citizenship and are hopeful of getting it.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed by the Parliament on December 11, 2019, which received Presidential approval the next day itself. In January 2020, the Ministry notified that the Act would come into force from January 10, but it later requested the Parliamentary Committees in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to give it some more time to implement rules, as the country was going through its worst-ever health crisis, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Earlier, the MHA had sought time from the Parliamentary Committees for similar extensions six times. The first extension was granted in June 2020 for notifying CAA rules.

The legislation, which grants citizenship to immigrants belonging to Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Parsi, Christian and Buddhist communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, was passed by the Parliament, amidst vehement criticism from the Opposition.

This law has been interpreted in conjunction with repeated assertions by Home Minister Amit Shah — before the Act was passed — that there would be a nationwide exercise to prepare a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) to identify illegal immigrants.

However, the law is yet to be implemented as rules under the CAA are yet to be framed.

As per the Manual on Parliamentary Work, in case the Ministries/Departments are not able to frame the rules within the prescribed period of six months of Presidential approval, they should "seek an extension of time from the Committee on Subordinate Legislation stating reasons for such extension" which cannot be more than three months at a time.

The central government has already made it clear that Indian citizenship to the eligible beneficiaries of the CAA will be given only after rules under the legislation are notified.

ALSO READ:



Next Story