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The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has empowered 13 more District Collectors in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab to grant citizenship certificates to applicants belonging to six minority communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
CAA
- The CAA, passed in 2019, seeks to grant Indian citizenship to six undocumented communities that came to India till December 31, 2014.
- The only way the CAA could have helped the legal minority migrants is in fast-tracking their applications as it reduced the mandatory requirement of 11 years aggregate stay in India to five for citizenship. Since the rules for the CAA are yet to be framed, a minority applicant from the three countries, even if he or she came in 2014, becomes eligible for citizenship in year 2025.
- Under the existing system, minority communities from the three countries who entered India before December 31, 2009, may or may not choose to provide a copy of their passports but they have to provide the date of the visa and may upload the visa document in place of the passport while applying for citizenship.
Citizenship
- Citizenship is a Central subject and the Home Ministry periodically delegates powers to the States through gazette notification under Section 16 of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- Indian citizenship can be acquired on eight grounds – based on registration made by a person of Indian origin, by a person married to an Indian, minor child, whose parents are registered as citizens of India, by a person whose either parent was a citizen of Independent India, overseas citizens of India, by naturalisation and registration of a child at an Indian consulate.
Source: The Hindu
