Government Starts Granting Citizenship Under CAA

• 30 May 2024

Why in News?

Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the government has begun awarding citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2024 in West Bengal, Haryana, and Uttarakhand.

Key Points

• On May 15, the initial batch of citizenship certificates was presented to the candidates in New Delhi by the Union Home Secretary, subsequent to the issuance of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, as approved by the Empowered Committee in Delhi.
• The Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024, issued by the MHA on March 11 2024, have cleared the path for the implementation of the CAA, which was approved by Parliament in 2019.
  • According to the guidelines, migrants belonging to six minority groups from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh can apply for Indian citizenship under the CAA, with retrospective effect.
• Under the amendment of CAA 2019, migrants who arrived in India by December 31, 2014, and had faced "religious persecution or feared religious persecution" in their home country became eligible for citizenship under the new law.
  • These migrants will be granted expedited Indian citizenship within six years. The amendment also reduced the residency requirement for naturalization of these migrants from eleven years to five.