Context
Recently Twenty Sikhs from Afghanistan, have been accorded citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019
- It amended the Citizenship Amendment Act, 1955, making key modifications to facilitate citizenship to undocumented migrants belonging to 6 non-Muslim groups — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or earlier than December 31, 2014.
- It reduced the period to qualify for citizenship from the existing requirement of continuous stay of 11 years to continuous stay of five years.
- However, Pakistani Hindus have been eligible for citizenship under Section five and Section 6 (1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955. The CAA handiest helped rapid tune the application manner.
- The Rules provide the very last authority to accord citizenship to an empowered committee headed via the Director, Census Operations, at the same time as the scrutiny of applications filed on-line at the portal was accomplished by a district degree committee (DLC) headed by means of Department of Post officials.
- On successful verification of documents, the DLCs administered the oath of allegiance to the applicants.
Challenges with the Act
- The right to equality: The challenge to the CAA rests on the ground that it violates Article 14 of the Constitution, which says that “the State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India”.
- Secularism: There is also the bigger difficulty of whether making religion a ground for eligibility for citizenship violates secularism, that is a basic feature of the Constitution.
- Section 6A of The Citizenship Act, 1955 and Assam: Section 6A was introduced in the Citizenship Act after the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985 which determines who’s a foreigner inside the nation of Assam and units March 24, 1971 as a cut off date which contradicts the reduce off date given inside the CAA 2019.
Citizenship
- Citizenship is listed inside the Union List underneath the Constitution and therefore is under the one-of-a-kind jurisdiction of Parliament.
- The Constitution does not outline the term ‘citizen’ but details of various classes of individuals who are entitled to citizenship are given in Part II (Articles five to 11).
Acquisition of Indian Citizenship
- The Citizenship Act of 1955 prescribes five methods of obtaining citizenship:
- Citizenship conferred by birth
- Citizenship by descent
- Citizenship by registration
- Naturalization leads to citizenship.
- Territorial incorporation (by the Government of India)
- Under The Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, Persons of Indian Origin aren’t allowed twin citizenship. If a person has ever held an Indian passport and has obtained the passport of some other country, they’re required to surrender their Indian passport.
Termination of Indian Citizenship
- Renunciation: Any Indian citizen who is also a country wide of any other country who renounces his Indian citizenship within the prescribed way thru a statement ceases to be an Indian citizen.
- Termination: An Indian citizen’s citizenship can be revoked if he or she knowingly or voluntarily adopts the citizenship of any other country.
- Deprivation: In some cases, the Indian government may additionally deprive a person of his citizenship. However, this does not apply to all residents. Conditions for deprivation are:
- Obtained the citizenship by using fraud.
- Citizens have shown disloyalty to the Constitution of India.
- Citizens have unlawfully traded or communicated all through the times of battle.
- Within 5 years of naturalization, the stated citizen is imprisoned for a term of years.
5.Citizen has been broadly speaking resident out of India for a period of 7 years.
Source: The Hindu
UPSC Prelims Practice Question
Q. With reference to India, consider the following statements: (2021)
- There is only one citizenship and one domicile.
- A citizen by birth only can was the Head of State.
- A foreigner once granted citizenship cannot be deprived of it under any circumstances
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3
(d) 2 and 3
Ans: (a)