Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019

Alok Aanand

Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 

In my previous blog I have discussed about the important sections of citizenship Amendment Act 1955. Today in my blog I shall be discussing on the topic of citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 Before moving on to the citizenship amendment act or bill of 2019 let's have a fast recap of the citizenship amendment Act, 1955 The Indian citizenship act just like any other citizenship act of a nation describes each and every detail of how an individual can get citizenship in India.

The act provided the Indian citizenzenship can be gained by the following ways- Birth, Descent, Registration, Incorporation and Naturalization. 

Important amendments which had so far taken place in the Act- 

1986 

1992 

2003 

2005 

and the recent one 2019 

When was the act been passed? 

The citizenship Amendment Act 2019 was passed on 11 December 2019 by the Parliament of India. It was introduced by Amit Shah the Minister of Home Affairs. 

What is the main purpose of the act? 

The main purpose of the act is to provide a way towards the Indian citizenship for the” illegal immigrants” of the religion like Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhist, Jains, Parsi and Christians who had entered India before 31st December 2014 from the three countries Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. 

This bill focuses on changing the act of the previous citizenship Amendment Act 1955. The changes made are as follows- 

1. The definition of illegal immigrant was earlier mentioned in the Act ans 

a) a foreigner who enters the country without valid documents. e.g. - passport. 

b)  stays beyond the permitted period 

The illegal immigrant defined in the new bill/amendment- As someone who had entered India before the 31st December from the religions of Hindus, Sikh, Pakistan, Buddhist, Jains, Parsi and Christians from the neighbouring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. It stated that earlier the the time period stated for getting citizenship in India for illegal immigrants was 14years but now only 5years would be enough to get citizenship here. Thus, the time period of 2014 to 2019 is given. 

Problems related to the bill- 

According to the Census Report 2021 the immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan had entered India in a majority. This bill indicated the First Act or Amendment which was mistakenly utilised as a basis for citizenship through religion under Indian Law. 

The main problem or issue related to this act was that why did this bill or act only focus on the three set countries that is Pakistan Bangladesh and Afghanistan and only these six communities like Jains, Buddhist, Christian, Parsis, Hindus and Sikhs. Question which were being frequently asked was 

Why were other neighbouring countries being ignored? 

Why were other communities like Muslims being ignored? 

The reply to this frequently asked question are- Be main motto behind this bill is to relax or expand the migration process that had took place earlier. 

The bill makers are of the view that the three countries that is Pakistan Afghanistan and Bangladesh are not secular they are a Muslim state and in this particular countries the people from these above-mentioned communities that is Jains, Muslim, Christians, Parsis, Hindus and Buddhist are minority. They are facing religious persecution over these countries hence it was necessary to give them these facilities. 

This act has faced a big opposition from Assam as during the war of 1920,1978 a huge number of Refugee were found in Assam. They had the refugees more in number in comparison to their original population. 

This will bill or amendment had been the most talked and criticised bill in the Indian law. Mistakenly people have taken this bill as a religious Warfare or the discrimination against the Muslim religion. The law makers assure the citizens to not to worry about the bill. It is just a motive to expand or relief the Minorities in the other countries from these six communities.