Indian Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024: An Anti-Muslim Law & A Lawfare Opportunity for Pakistan

On December 11, 2019 the BJP government passed the Indian Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to amend the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955. This amendment allowed for the grant of Indian citizenship to religious minorities, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, who fled from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan due to religious persecution or fear before December 2014. However, this legislation excluded Muslims from its purview. Lately, the Ministry of Home Affairs on March 11, 2024 notified the Citizenship Amendment Rules (CAR) to implement the CAA and notified the formation of committees at the State level to process the applications under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Citizenship Amendment Rules 2024 would now enable the implementation of CAA. Despite its enactment in 2019, the CAA could not be implemented because the rules were not notified

The CAA had allowed the above mentioned migrants to fast track Indian citizenship in 06 years. The amendment also relaxed the residence requirement for naturalisation of these migrants from 11 to 05 years.

The relevant insertions and amendments in the rules (Attached as Annexure A) along with the application procedure for obtaining citizenship (Attached as Annexure B) are also provided.

India is signatory to International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified in 1979, of which Article 26 prohibits the discrimination on grounds of race, religion, sex etc.  In addition, this move is also in derogation of Article 14 & 15(1) of Indian Constitution, 1950 as they provide legal protection against the non-equality before the law on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth and against discrimination on the basis of religion, caste etc. respectively. Thus, this CAA and the rules made thereunder are religion-based exclusion of refugees from the benefit of CAA. Because at one side India claims to be a secular country and on the other side links Indian citizenship with religion which undermines its secular nature.

The enactment of the said rules after the lapse of 04 years, especially, when the General Elections are round the corner is indicative of the fact that India wants to be the Regional Power, in pursuit of UNSC membership. New Delhi is quite strategically portraying herself as one of the biggest custodian of human rights. Moreover, this move could be played against Pakistan on the pretext that India is providing citizenship to those who are at the risk of/or facing persecution in Pakistan.

The CAA, 2019 had sparked protests across the country because it identified illegal migrants in India, resultantly a National Register of Citizens (NRC), containing the names of all Indian citizens was created. Thereafter, the NRC process in Assam excluded about 19 lakhs persons (Ref: The Wire dated March 13, 2024), turning them stateless, in the final register published in July 2019. The CAA violates the 1985 Assam Accord, which allows the foreign migrants who came to Assam after January 01, 1966, but before March 25, 1971, to seek citizenship.  While the cut-off date for citizenship under the CAA is December 31, 2014. Thus CAA might contradict the Assam Accord, as it establishes a distinct timeline.

Moreover, this impugned law aims to help migrants from 03 countries only (Pakistan, Bangladesh & Afghanistan) while leaving out those from countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bhutan. Because, many Tamil Hindus, who had to leave Sri Lanka due to persecution, have been languishing in India as refugees. This is because India is not even a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. More recently the US, UN and Amnesty International have raised alarms on CAA and CAR calling it religion based law and fundamentally discriminatory in nature. Likewise, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) lambasted the law as it goes against India’s international obligations and stated that it should ratify the Refugee Convention and establish a non-discriminatory refugee law. But if we read between the lines, the Indian Government is trying to say: “Due to the persecution of minorities in those three Muslim countries”. Thus, deliberately tarnishing thename of Islam across the world, whereas Islam does not preach hatred, violence or any kind of persecution on religious grounds.

This law and the relevant rules are part of the fascist designs of BJP/RSS which has also enacted several other laws, thus, restricting the lives of Muslims. For example, anti-religious freedom laws (Uttarakhand and Assam Uniform Civil Code), anti-cow slaughter laws etc. So, CAA is yet another way to legalise religious inequality and discrimination against Muslims.

Most importantly, several petitions (almost 200) challenging the constitutional validity of the CAA were filed in December, 2019. Then how come the Indian Government can issue the rules on a matter already sub judice before Supreme Court.

Additionally, in a recent development, the Indian Supreme Court has fixed the date of March 19 to hear the set of petitions (filed by Indian Union Muslim League and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) seeking the stay on the application of CAR. However, the State of Kerala has also moved to the SC seeking an injunction order against CAR, terming it as discriminatory, arbitrary, unreasonable, and in violation of the principles of secularism.

Annexure A

MAJOR CHANGES IN THE CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT RULES 2024

Annexure C

APPLICATION PROCEDURE UNDER THE CITIZENSHIP

AMENDMENT RULES 2024