Guwahati: The Parliamentary Committees on Subordinate Legislation in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha have given the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) a seventh extension to draught the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, said sources on Tuesday.
The deadline for drafting CAA rules has been extended by the Parliamentary Committees on Subordinate Legislation in the Rajya Sabha until December 31 of this year and by the Parliamentary Committees on Subordinate Legislation in the Lok Sabha until January 9, 2023.
The earlier extension ended on October 9, thus the MHA requested that the rules for the CAA be extended once more. The Parliamentary Committees agreed.
The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, and the Presidential approval came the next day. In January 2020, the Ministry notified that the Act would come into force from January 10, 2020, 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 due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The MHA had previously requested such extensions from the Parliamentary Committees six times. The first extension for announcing CAA rules was given in June 2020.
The Act, which provides citizenship to illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who are members of the Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Parsi, Christian, or Buddhist communities, was vehemently criticised by the Opposition for having a clear racial objective and notably excluding Muslims.
The law has been read in light of Home Minister Amit Shah’s repeated claims that there would be a national effort to prepare the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) to detect illegal immigrants before the Act was passed. This was perceived as a plan to deny Muslims their rights. While there were protests across the country after the law was passed, many states have said they won’t enforce it.
The CAA’s rules have not yet been formulated; hence the law has not yet been put into effect.
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 Indian citizenship will only be granted to CAA qualified beneficiaries after the rules governing the legislation are announced, the central government has previously made plain.
The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014. They will not be treated as illegal immigrants and given Indian citizenship.