CAA and status of judicial proceedings

• Four years after Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notified the rules to implement the law.
• The CAA is also under challenge before the Supreme Court, with several petitioners moving fresh pleas seeking a stay on the implementation of the rules.
• It fast-tracks citizenship for undocumented immigrants from six non-Muslim communities — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Christian and Jain — from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

What are the implications of CAA?

• In December 2019, Parliament passed an amendment to The Citizenship Act, 1955 (1955 Act) introducing a new proviso to Section 2(1)(b) which defines “illegal migrants.”
• Accordingly, undocumented immigrants who entered India on or before December 31, 2014,
  • Whom the Central government has exempted under the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, or the Foreigners Act, 1946
  • Would be eligible for citizenship under the 1955 Act.
• However, certain tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura were exempted from the legislation’s ambit.
• To access these protected areas, an Inner Line Permit (ILP) is needed from the concerned State governments.
• On May 28, 2021, the Union government issued an order under Section 16 of the 1955 Act
  • Granting District Collectors in five States with high migrant populations the power to grant citizenship to groups identified in the 2019 amendment.
• The CAA has also been dubbed as a move to subvert the Assam Accord of 1985 that deems any person who cannot prove his ancestry beyond March 24, 1971, as an alien and does not differentiate on grounds of religion.

What is the significance of the challenge to Section 6A?

• The proceedings against the CAA are also dependent on the outcome of the challenge to Section 6A of the 1955 Act
  • Which was introduced in furtherance of a Memorandum of Settlement called the “Assam Accord” signed on August 15, 1985.
• Section 6A determines who is a foreigner in Assam by establishing March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for entry
  • Those who came to the State on or after January 1, 1966, but before March 25, 1971, were to be declared as “foreigners”
  • Would have all the rights and obligations of Indian citizens except that they would not be able to vote for 10 years.
• If March 24, 1971, is upheld as a valid cut-off date for entry into the State, then CAA can be held to be violative of the Assam Accord since it establishes a different timeline.