Article 11 of the Indian constitution empowers Parliament to make any provision to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship
Background:
- By exercising power under Article 11, the Parliament passed CAA-2019 and received the President’s assent in December 2019. However, the MHA had not frame the rules, so the Act could not be implemented.
- The CAA aims to give citizenship to the target group of migrants even if they do not have valid travel documents as mandated in The Citizenship Act, of 1955.
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019
- The amendment provides that illegal migrants who fulfil four conditions will not be treated as illegal migrants under the Act.
- The conditions are:
- They are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians
- They are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan they entered India on or before December 31, 2014
- They are not in certain tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, or Tripura included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, or areas under the “Inner Line” permit, i.e., Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland.
- The Central Government exempted the said migrants from the adverse penal consequences of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Foreigners Act, 1946 and rules or orders made thereunder.
- The period of naturalisation has been reduced from 11 years to 5 years for the above category of migrants.
- Five grounds for cancelling OCI registration: The Act provides that the central government may cancel the registration of OCIs.
- Registration through fraud
- Showing disaffection to the Constitution
- Engaging with the enemy during war
- Necessity in the interest of sovereignty of India, security of the state or public interest, or
- If within five years of registration OCI has been sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more.
