Citizenship and Related Issues
SC upholds Section 6A of Citizenship Act as valid
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Mains level: Citizenship of India;
Why in the News?
On October 17, 2024, political parties widely welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision upholding Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, addressing citizenship under the Assam Accord.
What is Section 6A?
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What are the implications of upholding Section 6A for citizenship in Assam?
- Legal Recognition of the Assam Accord: The verdict reinforces the Assam Accord’s legal status, acknowledging the cut-off date of March 25, 1971, for granting citizenship to immigrants. This solidifies the Accord’s role as a foundational legal document addressing the state’s citizenship issues.
- Clarifying Citizenship Status: The ruling provides legal clarity on the citizenship status of individuals who entered Assam between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971. They are granted citizenship if they comply with specific conditions, while those arriving post-1971 are deemed illegal immigrants.
- Impact on the NRC Process: The decision may influence the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in Assam by determining who is eligible for inclusion. The cut-off date could guide the verification of citizenship claims, potentially affecting those at risk of being declared stateless.
How does this ruling interact with existing immigration laws and policies?
- Consistency with the Foreigners Act: The ruling aligns with existing immigration policies under the Foreigners Act, where illegal immigrants are identified and potentially deported.
- Implications for Deportation and Detection: The verdict mandates continued efforts to detect and deport illegal immigrants who arrived post-March 25, 1971.
- This may intensify identification and deportation processes, requiring robust legal and administrative mechanisms.
- Role in NRC and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) Debate: The ruling interacts with ongoing discussions about the CAA, which grants citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from neighboring countries who entered before December 31, 2014.
What are the broader constitutional implications of this decision?
- Federalism and Regional Autonomy: The judgment upholds Assam’s unique historical and cultural context, recognizing the state’s special legal provisions under the Assam Accord.
- Right to Equality and Non-discrimination: By validating different cut-off dates for citizenship determination in Assam compared to the rest of India, the ruling raises questions about equal treatment and the uniformity of laws across the country.
- Judicial Endorsement of Accord-based Legislation: The ruling sets a precedent for upholding legislation based on historical accords or regional agreements.
Way forward:
- Full Implementation of the Assam Accord: Ensure the complete execution of all clauses of the Accord, including detecting, deleting, and deporting illegal immigrants, while providing support to those recognized as citizens to integrate smoothly into society.
- Strengthen Legal and Administrative Frameworks: Enhance the infrastructure for the NRC process, deportation mechanisms, and border management to maintain consistency in immigration policies, while addressing humanitarian concerns for affected individuals.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Who is an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI)?
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Overseas Citizen of India (OCI)
Why in the News?
Following complaints from Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders about being reclassified as “foreigners,” the Ministry of External Affairs clarified, that no changes have been made to the rules governing OCI status.
About Overseas Citizen of India (OCI)
| Details | |
| About |
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| OCI Card Benefits | OCI cardholders receive a multiple-entry, life-long visa to visit India and are exempt from registering with local authorities for extended stays. |
| Population (as of 2023) | USA: 16.8 lakh > UK: 9.34 lakh > Australia: 4.94 lakh> Canada: 4.18 lakh |
| Recent Rules (2021 Notification) |
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| OCI vs NRI Rights | Under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) 2003, OCI card holders are now on par with foreign nationals regarding economic, financial, and educational rights, reversing earlier parity with NRIs. |
| Significant Changes to OCI Rules |
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| Eligibility Restrictions |
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| Spouse Eligibility | Spouses of Indian citizens or OCI card holders, whose marriage has been registered for at least two years, can apply for an OCI card. |
| OCI Card Restrictions |
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PYQ:[2021] With reference to India, consider the following statements: (2021)
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 only |
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Citizenship and Related Issues
How do Assam’s Foreigners Tribunals function?
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: About Foreigners Tribunals
Mains level: Decision-Making Process of Foreigners Tribunals
Why in the news?
On July 5, the Assam government instructed the Border wing of the State police not to refer cases of non-Muslims who entered India illegally before 2014 to the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs).
About Foreigners Tribunals:
- Foreigners Tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies established to determine if a person staying illegally in India is a “foreigner” or not.
- They were set up under the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, enacted by the central government under the Foreigners Act, 1946.
- Initially, only the central government could set up these tribunals. But a 2019 amendment empowered district magistrates in all states and UTs to establish Foreigners Tribunals.
- The tribunals have the powers of a civil court to summon witnesses, require document production, and examine evidence.
Decision-Making Process of Foreigners Tribunals:
- Referral: Individuals suspected of being foreigners are referred to FTs by local authorities or border police. This referral can be based on various factors, including lack of documentation or doubtful voter status.
- Notice Issuance: Upon receiving a reference, the FT issues a notice to the person alleged to be a foreigner. This notice is served in English or the state’s official language.The person has 10 days to respond to the notice and an additional 10 days to submit evidence supporting their claim of citizenship.
- Submission of Evidence: The individual must present evidence to prove their Indian citizenship. This may include documents like birth certificates, school certificates, land records, or other official records.
- Verification: The tribunal examines the documents and evidence provided, and may call witnesses or seek additional information if necessary.
- Hearing: The FT has the authority to summon and examine the individual on oath, and to require the production of additional documents. The tribunal operates with certain powers of a civil court.
- Judgment: If the evidence provided is deemed insufficient to prove citizenship, the individual may be declared a foreigner. If evidence is adequate, the person is recognized as an Indian citizen.
- Detention and Deportation: If declared a foreigner and unable to appeal successfully, the person may be sent to a detention center (transit camp) for deportation.
Role of Border Police:
- Detection and Referral: The Assam Police Border Organisation is responsible for detecting illegal foreigners and referring suspicious cases to FTs.
- Patrolling and Defence: They patrol the India-Bangladesh border, work with the Border Security Force, and maintain a second line of defense.
- Monitoring: They monitor people settled in riverine and char (sandbar) areas.
- Cases of ‘D’ Voters: They refer cases of ‘D’ (doubtful) voters to FTs as directed by the Election Commission of India.
- NRC Appeals: People excluded from the NRC can appeal to the FTs through this wing to prove their citizenship.
Challenges and Criticisms:
- Supreme Court Rulings: The Supreme Court has overturned FT orders citing grave miscarriages of justice, such as the wrongful declaration of a deceased farmer, Rahim Ali, as a foreigner.
- Corruption and Malpractice: Observations have been made about corruption within the system, with allegations of notices being improperly served.
Conclusion: Need to Implement stricter oversight and auditing of Foreigners Tribunals to ensure fairness and adherence to legal procedures. Regular reviews and monitoring can help prevent corruption and malpractice, ensuring that notices are properly served and tribunal processes are transparent.
Mains PYQ:
Q How far are India’s internal security challenges linked with border management particularly in view of the long porous borders with most countries of South Asia and Myanmar? (UPSC IAS/2013)
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Citizenship Amendment Act: Legal issues and status of judicial proceedings
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Citizenship;CAA 2019; CAA 2024; Judicial interventions;
Mains level: Citizenship; CAA 2019; CAA 2024; Judicial interventions;
Why in the news?
- The Ministry of Home Affairs notified the rules to implement the CAA, which fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries. Despite delays, the Act faces challenges in the Supreme Court.
Context
- Petitions challenge the CAA’s constitutionality, arguing it violates Article 14 by making religion a qualifier for citizenship.
- Petitions seek a stay on the recently notified rules, criticizing the bypassing of tiered scrutiny for citizenship applications and the government’s decision to implement rules before a final court decision.
About Citizenship Amendment Act 2019:
Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024:Despite a delay of over four years, the Ministry of Home Affairs has officially issued the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024, facilitating the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. The key provisions include:
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What are the implications of CAA?
- Potential Impact on Muslims: The CAA, when combined with the proposed National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), has the potential to disproportionately affect Muslims residing in India. Non-Muslims may have an opportunity to obtain citizenship through the CAA, while Muslims may be denied this opportunity.
- Exclusion from NRIC: In the event of people being excluded from the NRIC, non-Muslims may have a pathway to inclusion through the CAA, while Muslims may face barriers. The Supreme Court-monitored NRC exercise in Assam in 2021 left over 19 lakh people from the citizenship register, raising concerns about exclusion and discrimination.
- Executive Order and Implementation: The Union government issued an order granting District Collectors in five states with high migrant populations the power to grant citizenship to groups identified in the CAA amendment. However, there were allegations that this order was a tactic to implement the CAA, which the government denied.
- Relaxation of Citizenship Criteria: The newly notified rules under the CAA have eased the process of granting Indian citizenship to members of specified communities by excluding the requirement of a valid passport or visa. Instead, documents showing ancestry from designated countries are deemed sufficient.
- Constitutional Challenges: The constitutionality of the CAA has been challenged in court, with petitions arguing that the law violates Article 14 of the Constitution by making religion a qualifier for citizenship.
- Impact on Assam Accord: The CAA has been criticized as undermining the Assam Accord of 1985, which does not differentiate on grounds of religion and deems any person who cannot prove ancestry beyond March 24, 1971, as an alien. Petitions contend that the law may lead to an increase in the influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to Assam.
How has the Supreme Court responded? (Judicial Stand)
- December 2019: The Supreme Court, led by former Chief Justice of India (CJI) S.A. Bobde, refused to stay the operation of the CAA. Instead, the court suggested that the government should publicize the actual intent of the Act.
- A similar plea for a stay was rejected by the court on January 22, 2020, with the court emphasizing the need to hear the government’s perspective first.
- October 2022: A Bench led by former CJI U.U. Lalit ordered that final hearings in the case would commence on December 6, 2022.
- However, since then, the case has not been listed. According to the Supreme Court’s website, the petitions are currently before a Bench headed by Justice Pankaj Mithal.
What is the significance of the challenge to Section 6A?
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Why are petitioners seeking a stay on the rules?
- Changes in Scrutiny Process: The rules have reportedly eliminated the tiered scrutiny process of applications for citizenship by District Collectors.
- Previously, District Collectors scrutinized applications, and state governments provided recommendations on granting citizenship. The removal of this scrutiny process is a concern for the petitioners.
- Timing of their implementation: The petitioners highlight that the government had previously avoided a push for a stay on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the Supreme Court five years ago by arguing that the rules for implementation had not been framed.
- Now, with the rules in place, the petitioners question the timing of their implementation.
- Pending Decision from Supreme Court: The petitioners argue that the government should have awaited a final decision from the Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of the CAA before implementing the rules.
- They suggest that implementing the rules without a definitive ruling from the court could preempt its decision-making process.
Conclusion:
- Implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act and its accompanying rules faces legal challenges and societal implications.
- Moving forward, ensuring fairness, inclusivity, and adherence to constitutional principles will be vital in resolving the complexities surrounding citizenship laws in India.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Mapping: Darien Gap
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Darien Gap
Mains level: NA
Why in the news:
- Much of the discussion over illegal immigration to the US has in recent weeks moved its focus south to the Darien Gap.
What is Darien Gap?
- The Darien Gap spans northern Colombia and Southern Panama, covering approximately 97 km of dense jungle terrain.
- It is situated in the narrowest part of the Isthmus of Panama, connecting North America to South America.
- It covers an area of approximately 41,440 square km.
- The landscape is characterized by dense rainforests, swamps, rivers, and rugged mountains.
- It is one of the most biologically diverse regions on Earth, home to a wide array of plant and animal species, including jaguars, pumas, tapirs, and numerous bird species.
Why in the news?
Ans. Surge in Illegal Crossings
- Escalating Numbers: In 2021, the Panamanian government recorded a staggering 133,000 crossings, with over half a million individuals transiting through the region in 2023.
- Root Causes: Violence, insecurity, and limited legal immigration options in home countries propel individuals, including Venezuelans, Haitians, and Afghans, to undertake the perilous journey.
Try this PYQ from CSE Prelims 2015:
The area known as ‘Golan Heights’ sometimes appears in the news in the context of the events is related to:
(a) Central Asia
(b) Middle East
(c) South-East Asia
(d) Central Africa
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Kerala Cabinet asks Advocate General to explore legal options to challenge CAA notification in Supreme Court
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Key provisions of CAA, 2019
Mains level: States opposition to CAA implementation
Why in the news?
- The Kerala Cabinet aims to challenge the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, expressing opposition to its perceived anti-Muslim bias. Legal options are explored to contest the Act’s rules.
Context:
The government notified rules for implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, simplifying the process for granting Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived before December 31, 2014.
About Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019
The citizenship laws in India derived their origins from the constitution under Articles 5-11 and the Citizenship Act of 1955. This Act provided provisions for citizenship by Birth, Descent, Registration and Naturalization.
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What are the recent challenges faced by the Kerala Government?
- Anti-Muslim Bias: The Kerala government opposes the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), labeling it as “patently anti-Muslim and deeply schismatic.”
- Resolution for Repeal: The Kerala Assembly adopted a resolution in 2019 demanding the repeal of CAA due to its criterion of religion for Indian citizenship.
- Legal Challenge: Kerala filed an original suit before the Supreme Court under Article 131, contesting the Center’s framing of CAA rules. Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, DYFI, and IUML challenge CAA in the Supreme Court.
- Urgency Post CAA Rules: Kerala Cabinet emphasizes new legal urgency after the Center’s notification of CAA rules.
- Ongoing anti-CAA protests were witnessed in Kerala, including train blockades and marches. Congress leaders condemn CAA for undermining secular principles.
- Opposition criticizes Kerala CM’s stance against implementing CAA and calls it political posturing.
National Scenario:
- States:
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- In Assam: Members of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) took part in a protest march after the central government notified the rules for implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, in Guwahati.
- In Kolkata: Leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) protested against the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
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- Youth Protests:
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- In Delhi: Students of Jamia Millia Islamia University also staged a protest after the central government notified the rules for implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
- In Tamil Nadu: Further, members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) staged a protest, a day after the Modi-led government notified the rules for implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, at Madras University.
Way Forward to address the concerns and avoid protests:
- Dialogue and Consultation: Engage in open dialogue with stakeholders, including state governments, opposition parties, and civil society, to address concerns and seek consensus on amendments or alternatives to the Citizenship Amendment Act.
- Legal Review: Conduct a comprehensive legal review of the Citizenship Amendment Act and its rules to ensure adherence to constitutional principles, including equality before the law and secularism.
- Inclusive Citizenship Criteria: Consider revising the Citizenship Amendment Act to remove religious criteria and ensure that citizenship is granted based on objective and non-discriminatory grounds, such as residency or persecution.
- Uphold Secular Values: Reaffirm the government’s commitment to secularism and religious pluralism, emphasizing the importance of protecting the rights of all communities and promoting social harmony.
Conclusion:
- Address Kerala’s concerns over anti-Muslim bias in CAA, legal challenges, and ongoing protests. Emphasize dialogue, legal review, inclusivity, and upholding secular values to foster social harmony and resolve grievances.
Prelims PYQs
Q. With reference to India, consider the following statements :
- There is only one citizenship and one domicile.
- A citizen by birth only can become the Head of State.
- A foreigner once granted citizenship cannot be deprived of it under any circumstances.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- 1 only
- 2 only
- 1 and 3
- 2 and 3
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Unpacking the CAA Rules
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Key provisions of CAA, 2019
Mains level: CAA Rules
In the news
- The long-awaited Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has been set into motion by the Centre, marking a significant step forward in India’s legislative landscape.
- Enacted in December 2019, the CAA aims to provide citizenship to certain migrants from neighboring countries, sparking debates and controversies nationwide.
Making of the CAA, 2019: A Timeline
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New Citizenship Law: Eligibility and Required Documentation
- Beneficiaries: The CAA primarily benefits Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
- Documentation: Applicants need to provide proof of their country of origin, religion, date of entry into India, and knowledge of an Indian language.
- Proof of Country of Origin: Acceptable documents include birth certificates, educational institution certificates, identity documents, licenses, certificates, or any other document issued by Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan.
- Establishing Date of Entry: Applicants can provide a range of documents such as visas, residential permits, census slips, driving licenses, Aadhaar cards, ration cards, or any letter issued by the government or court to prove their entry date.
- Generational Proof: Applicants can also provide documents indicating familial ties to these countries, such as those showing ancestry, expanding the scope of eligibility.
Application Processing Mechanism
[A] Empowered Committees
- Role of Empowered Committee: This committee is tasked with overseeing the entire process, from receiving to processing applications. It ensures that all procedures are followed diligently and efficiently.
- Membership: The Empowered Committee is headed by a Director (Census Operations) and comprises representatives from various government bodies, including the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau, the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO), the National Informatics Centre (NIC), and the Postmaster General.
- Responsibilities: The committee members are responsible for verifying the authenticity of documents submitted by applicants, conducting background checks, and making final decisions on citizenship applications.
[B] District Level Committees (DLC)
- Composition: The DLC consists of the District Informatics Officer or District Informatics Assistant and a nominee of the central government.
- Functions: DLCs serve as the initial point of contact for applicants, receiving their submissions and ensuring they are complete and accurate before forwarding them to the Empowered Committee for further processing.
- Oversight: While DLCs handle the initial stages of application processing, they operate under the supervision and guidance of the Empowered Committee. This hierarchical structure ensures uniformity and consistency in decision-making across different regions.
[C] Electronic Submission and Processing
- Digital Platform: To streamline operations and minimize paperwork, the application process is conducted electronically. Applicants submit their documents and forms through an online portal managed by the government.
- Efficiency: Electronic submission allows for faster processing times and reduces the risk of errors associated with manual data entry. It also enables real-time tracking of application status, providing transparency to applicants throughout the process.
- Data Security: The government ensures robust cybersecurity measures to protect the sensitive information submitted by applicants. Encryption protocols and secure servers safeguard data integrity and confidentiality.
Conclusion
- The implementation of the CAA signifies a significant policy shift aimed at addressing the plight of persecuted minorities in neighbouring countries.
- While the rules have sparked debates and opposition, they also represent India’s commitment to humanitarian values and providing refuge to those in need.
- As the citizenship application process unfolds, it will be crucial to ensure transparency, fairness, and adherence to legal procedures to uphold the principles of justice and inclusivity.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Centre notifies Implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) Rules
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Key provisions of CAA, 2019
Mains level: Debate over CAA
In the news
- Just days ahead of the announcement of Lok Sabha election, the Union Home Ministry notified the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024.
- This would now enable the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by Parliament in 2019.
Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019: Key Provisions
- Basic idea: CAA, 2019, aims to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian citizenship to specific categories of illegal migrants.
- Eligible Religions: CAA targets Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, making them eligible for Indian citizenship.
- Objective: The primary objective is to facilitate citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants from India’s three Muslim-majority neighboring countries.
- Residence Requirement: The Citizenship Act, 1955, normally requires 11 of the previous 14 years of residence in India as a condition for naturalization.
- Amendment: CAA reduces this requirement to 6 years for applicants belonging to the specified religions and countries.
- Exemption from Criminal Cases: Members of the designated communities are exempted from criminal cases under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Passport Act, 1920, if they entered India before December 31, 2014.
Defining Illegal Migrants
- Status under Present Laws: Existing laws prohibit illegal migrants from acquiring Indian citizenship.
- CAA’s Definition: CAA classifies an illegal migrant as a foreigner who enters India without valid travel documents (passport and visa) or overstays beyond the allowed period.
- Penalties: Illegal migrants can face imprisonment or deportation under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.
Exceptions under CAA
- Conditions for Exemption: CAA outlines four conditions that, if met, exempt certain individuals from being treated as illegal migrants:
- They belong to the specified religions (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian).
- They hail 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 (Sixth Schedule) or “Inner Line” permit areas (Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland).
Controversies Surrounding CAA
- Country of Origin: CAA categorizes migrants based on their country of origin, specifically Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
- Religious Exclusivity: It raises questions about why only six specified religious minorities have been considered in the Act.
- Omission of Rohingya: The Act doesn’t address the Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, who have faced persecution.
- Entry Date Differentiation: The differential treatment of migrants based on their entry date, i.e., before or after December 31, 2014, has generated debate.
- Secularism Concerns: Critics argue that granting citizenship based on religion contradicts the secular principles of India’s Constitution, considered part of the unalterable basic structure.
Constitutionality Check
- The challenge may rest primarily on the grounds that the law violates Article 14 of the Constitution that guarantees that no person shall be denied the right to equality before law or the equal protection of law in the territory of India.
- The Supreme Court has developed a Two-Pronged Test to examine a law on the grounds of Article 14.
- First, any differentiation between groups of persons must be founded on “intelligible differentia”
- Second, differentia must have a rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved by the Act
- Simply put, for a law to satisfy the conditions under Article 14, it has to first create a “reasonable class” of subjects that it seeks to govern under the law.
- Even if the classification is reasonable, any person who falls in that category has to be treated alike.
Impact on Assam and Assam Accord
- Intersection with Section 6A: The CAA intersects with Section 6A of The Citizenship Act, 1955, which determines citizenship criteria in Assam.
- Assam Accord: Section 6A, linked to the Assam Accord, sets criteria for determining citizenship in Assam, posing potential conflicts with the CAA’s provisions.
- Base Cut-off Date and Regularization: The Assam Accord establishes a base cut-off date for identifying and regularizing foreigners in Assam, impacting the implementation of the CAA in the state.
Way forward
- India is a constitutional democracy with a basic structure that assures a secure and spacious home for all Indians.
- Being partitioned on religious grounds, India has to undertake a balancing act to protect the religious minorities in its neighbourhood.
- These minorities are under constant threat of persecution and vandalism.
- India needs to balance its civilization duties to protect those who are prosecuted in the neighbourhood.
Try this PYQ from CSE Prelims 2021:
Q.With reference to India, consider the following statements:
- There is only one citizenship and one domicile.
- A citizen by birth only can become the Head of State.
- A foreigner once granted the citizenship cannot be deprived of it under any circumstances.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3
(s) 2 and 3
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Citizenship and Related Issues
CAA Implementation within a Week
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAA
Mains level: Read the attached story
Introduction
- A Union Minister has said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 would be implemented in the country within a week.
Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019: Key Provisions
- Basic idea: CAA, 2019, aims to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian citizenship to specific categories of illegal migrants.
- Eligible Religions: CAA targets Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, making them eligible for Indian citizenship.
- Objective: The primary objective is to facilitate citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants from India’s three Muslim-majority neighboring countries.
- Residence Requirement: The Citizenship Act, 1955, normally requires 11 of the previous 14 years of residence in India as a condition for naturalization.
- Amendment: CAA reduces this requirement to 6 years for applicants belonging to the specified religions and countries.
- Exemption from Criminal Cases: Members of the designated communities are exempted from criminal cases under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Passport Act, 1920, if they entered India before December 31, 2014.
Defining Illegal Migrants
- Status Under Present Laws: Existing laws prohibit illegal migrants from acquiring Indian citizenship.
- CAA’s Definition: CAA classifies an illegal migrant as a foreigner who enters India without valid travel documents (passport and visa) or overstays beyond the allowed period.
- Penalties: Illegal migrants can face imprisonment or deportation under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.
Exceptions under CAA
- Conditions for Exemption: CAA outlines four conditions that, if met, exempt certain individuals from being treated as illegal migrants:
- They belong to the specified religions (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian).
- They hail 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 (Sixth Schedule) or “Inner Line” permit areas (Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland).
Controversies Surrounding CAA
- Country of Origin: CAA categorizes migrants based on their country of origin, specifically Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
- Religious Exclusivity: It raises questions about why only six specified religious minorities have been considered in the Act.
- Omission of Rohingya: The Act doesn’t address the Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, who have faced persecution.
- Entry Date Differentiation: The differential treatment of migrants based on their entry date, i.e., before or after December 31, 2014, has generated debate.
- Secularism Concerns: Critics argue that granting citizenship based on religion contradicts the secular principles of India’s Constitution, considered part of the unalterable basic structure.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Private: CAA Rules to be notified before 2024 General Elections
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019
Mains level: Read the attached story
Central Idea
- The rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are likely to be notified before the next general election, confirms MHA officials.
About Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019
- Parliamentary Approval: The CAA was passed by the Parliament in December 2019 but is pending implementation.
- Current Status: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is yet to notify the rules governing the Act.
- Timeframe for Implementation: There is a one-month window for the CAA to be implemented before the next Budget Session, starting on February 1, as reported on December 29, 2023.
Key Provisions of the CAA
- Facilitation of Citizenship: The CAA aims to provide citizenship to undocumented individuals from six non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who entered India illegally.
- Eligible Communities: Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians, and Jains from the three countries, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, are eligible.
- Reduced Residency Requirement: The Act reduces the requirement of aggregate stay in India for these applicants from 11 years to six years.
Salient Features of the Act
- Definition of Illegal Migrants: The Citizenship Act, 1955, is amended to exclude certain communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan from being treated as illegal migrants.
- Citizenship by Registration or Naturalisation: The Act modifies the qualifications for citizenship, reducing the residency requirement for specified communities to five years.
- Exemptions: The provisions do not apply to tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura, and the “Inner Line” areas under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.
- Cancellation of OCI Registration: The Act introduces additional grounds for cancelling Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration.
Recent discussions over CAA
- UPA Government’s Decision in 2011: The Congress-led UPA government decided to grant Long Term Visas (LTVs) to Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan claiming religious persecution in 2010.
- Legal Amendments: The government official mentioned the possibility of extending the 2014 cut-off by legal changes if needed.
- Unclear Beneficiary Numbers: The total number of undocumented people who will benefit from the CAA in states like West Bengal and Assam is unspecified.
- High Volume of Applications: Around 80,000 applications from Pakistani Hindus are pending, with 35,000 in Rajasthan alone.
- Online Citizenship Process: Since 2018, the citizenship process for applicants from the six communities has been online, with powers delegated to district collectors and home secretaries.
Challenges in the Online Process
- Issue with Pakistani Passports: The online portal does not accept expired Pakistani passports, necessitating renewal through the Pakistan High Commission.
- Visa and Citizenship Pathway: Most Pakistani Hindus and Sikhs entered India on long-term or pilgrim visas, which precede citizenship.
Conclusion
- Balancing Security and Humanitarian Concerns: The implementation of the CAA requires a careful balance between national security interests and addressing humanitarian needs of refugees.
- Anticipating Impact: The notification of the CAA rules will mark a significant shift in India’s citizenship policy, particularly affecting refugees from neighboring countries.
- Ongoing Developments: As the government finalizes the CAA rules, the impact on affected communities and the legal landscape will be closely monitored.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
What are Foreigners’ Tribunals?
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Foreigners’ Tribunals
Mains level: NA
Central Idea
- Since 1966, Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) in Assam have identified 32,381 people as foreigners.
Foreigners Tribunals in Assam
- Unique Quasi-Judicial Bodies: FTs are specific to Assam, tasked with determining whether a person is illegally staying as a “foreigner” in India.
- Backdrop of Assam’s NRC: With the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has outlined guidelines for detecting, detaining, and deporting illegal foreign nationals.
- Amendment to Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964: The MHA has amended this order, allowing district magistrates in all States and Union Territories to establish tribunals.
- Shift in Power: Previously, only the Central Government had the authority to constitute such tribunals.
Need for Foreigners Tribunals
- Legal Process for Foreigners: In other regions, foreigners apprehended for illegal stay are tried under the Passport Act, 1920, or the Foreigners Act, 1946, with penalties including imprisonment and eventual deportation.
- Detention Centers: Post-sentence, the accused are held in detention centers until their country of origin agrees to accept them.
Recent Amendments and Their Implications
- Changes in Tribunal Constitution: The 1964 order initially allowed only the Central Government to refer cases to the Tribunals. The amendment now permits State Governments, UT administrations, District Collectors, and District Magistrates to do so.
- Empowerment of Individuals: The amended Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 2019, enables individuals to approach Tribunals, a change from the earlier provision where only the State could challenge a suspect.
- Context of NRC: With the final NRC publication, this amendment aims to provide adequate opportunities for those not included in the list.
- Procedure for Non-Listed Individuals: Persons not found in the final NRC can approach the Tribunals. District Magistrates can also refer cases of individuals who haven’t filed claims against their NRC exclusion.
- Issuance of Fresh Summons: These individuals will receive new summons to prove their citizenship.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Constitution Bench to hear challenge to Section 6A of Citizenship Act
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Section 6A
Mains level: Read the attached story
Central Idea
- A Constitution Bench has decided to commence hearings regarding a series of petitions that challenge the constitutionality of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, of 1955.
Background of Section 6A
- Section 6A was introduced as a special provision in the 1955 Act following the signing of the ‘Assam Accord‘ Memorandum of Settlement on August 15, 1985.
- This accord, facilitated by the Rajiv Gandhi government, aimed to protect the cultural, linguistic, and social identity of Assam.
- It marked the end of a six-year-long agitation led by the All Assam Students Union against illegal immigrants, primarily from Bangladesh.
Legal Challenge
- Centre’s Defense: The Union government has maintained that Section 6A is legally sound and urged the court to dismiss the petitions. These petitions were filed nearly 40 years after the enactment of Section 6A.
- Provisions of Section 6A: Under Section 6A, foreigners who entered Assam before January 1, 1966, and were “ordinarily resident” in the State, were granted all the rights and obligations of Indian citizens. Those who arrived in the State between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, were accorded similar rights and obligations but could not vote for a period of 10 years.
- Challenging Discrimination: Petitioners, including Assam Public Works and others, argue that Section 6A’s “discriminatory” nature in granting citizenship to immigrants, especially illegal ones, is in violation of Article 6 of the Constitution, which establishes the cutoff date for granting citizenship to immigrants as July 19, 1948.
Key Points of Contention
- Conservation of Cultural Rights: The Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha, a Guwahati-based civil society organization, has demanded the updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam based on the 1951 NRC rather than the electoral rolls of March 1971.
- Supreme Court’s Involvement: In December 2014, the Supreme Court formulated 13 questions encompassing various issues related to the constitutionality of Section 6A, including its impact on the political rights of Assam’s citizens and whether it violated the rights of the Assamese people to preserve their cultural identity. In 2015, a three-judge Bench referred the case to a Constitution Bench.
Why discuss this?
- The Section 6A case has been pending for several years, coinciding with the Supreme Court’s monitoring of the final Assam NRC list in August 2019, which excluded over 19 lakh individuals.
- Additionally, the past years witnessed the enactment of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which granted accelerated citizenship to immigrants from minority communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
What lies ahead?
- The upcoming hearings on Section 6A will provide a crucial legal examination of its constitutionality and its implications for the protection of cultural rights and the status of immigrants in Assam.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Census unlikely before 2024 Lok Sabha polls
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Census of India
Mains level: Evidence-based decision making
Central Idea
- Deadline extension: The deadline to freeze administrative boundaries for the Census in India has been extended till December 31, ruling out the possibility of conducting the Census before the 2024 General Elections.
What is Census of India?
- The Census of India is a large-scale population survey conducted by the Government of India.
- It aims to gather detailed information about the population, demographics, and socio-economic characteristics of the country.
Historical Background
- Inaugural Census: The first complete Census of India was conducted in 1881 during British rule.
- Institutional Framework: Since 1949, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, have been responsible for conducting the Census.
- Legal Framework: The Census of India Act, 1948 provides the legal basis for conducting the census.
Extension of Deadline and Administrative Changes
- Order by Registrar General: The office of the Registrar General of India issued an order extending the date of freezing boundaries for the Census to January 1, 2024.
- Instructing State governments: The Directorate of Census Operations has been instructed to inform State governments to make any necessary administrative changes by December 31 and notify the Census office of the jurisdictional changes.
Reasons for Delay
- Training time: After the boundaries are frozen, at least three months are required to train enumerators for the Census.
- Timing constraint: The exercise cannot begin before April 2024 due to simultaneous General Elections, as the same workforce will be deployed for election duties.
- Transition to digital: The coming Census will be the first digital Census, allowing citizens to self-enumerate.
Phases of Census and Population Projections
- Two-phase process: The Census is carried out in two phases: the Houselisting and Housing Census and the Population Enumeration phase, which typically takes around 11 months.
- National Population Register (NPR): The NPR is updated with the first phase of the Census.
- Population projections: Based on Census 2011 data, population projections indicate an expected increase from 121.1 crore to 151.8 crore during 2011-2036, with a density increase from 368 to 462 persons per square kilometer.
Purpose and Importance of the Census
- Data for planning and policymaking: The Census provides information for central and state governments to plan and formulate policies.
- National identity and future planning: It helps identify the nation’s demographic composition and guides future development and resource allocation.
- Funding distribution: Census data assists in determining how funds and assistance are distributed to states and localities.
- Wide-ranging applications: The data is used by various national and international agencies, scholars, businesses, and policymakers.
Significance and Impact of the Census
- Governance and statistics: The Census is a vital source of statistics for governance and serves as a foundation for official statistics.
- Detailed demographic insights: It provides data on demography, economic activity, literacy, housing, migration, and other socio-cultural factors.
- Delimitation of constituencies: The Census data is used for delimitation and reservation of parliamentary, assembly, and local body constituencies.
- Policy formulation and administration: The Census helps review progress, monitor government schemes, and plan for the future.
- Welfare schemes and beneficiaries: It identifies actual beneficiaries, supports identity creation, and ensures inter-temporal comparability.
Impact of Delay in Census 2021
- Discrepancies in PDS identification: Delayed census data affects the identification of beneficiaries under the public distribution system, depriving people of subsidised food entitlements.
- Poor targeting of welfare schemes: The delay hampers policy planning, budgeting, and administration of schemes that rely on accurate demographic data.
- Inadequate migration data: Outdated census data fails to capture accurate migration patterns and impacts policy and planning in various sectors.
Reasons for Delay
- Administrative boundaries: Census can only be conducted after freezing the boundaries of administrative units, which takes time.
- COVID-19 pandemic: The pandemic is officially cited as the reason for the delay, although restrictions have been lifted.
- CAA and NRC issues: The plan to use the census for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has further delayed the process.
- Lack of political will: The government’s lack of urgency and clarification on the census timeline contribute to the delay.
Way Forward
- Complete pre-census work: Expedite house-listing and other necessary activities.
- Digital census and self-enumeration: Utilize mobile apps and self-enumeration to streamline data collection and processing.
- Ensure data quality: Address concerns regarding data quality and completeness of coverage during self-enumeration.
Conclusion
- The delay in conducting the Census poses challenges for accurate population data and planning in India.
- The next Census, to be conducted after the 2024 General Elections, will mark a significant milestone as the first digital Census, providing citizens the opportunity to self-enumerate.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Digital Census and Self-enumeration through NPR Update
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Population Register (NPR)
Mains level: Read the attached story
Central Idea
- The article discusses implementation of a digital Census and the option for citizens to self-enumerate through updating their National Population Register (NPR) details online.
What is the news?
- Census 2021, the first digital Census, will allow citizens to “self-enumerate” when it is conducted.
- The government has not announced the date for the Census yet, and a notification from January 2, 2023, indicates that the exercise is postponed until at least September.
What is National Population Register (NPR)?
- The NPR is a register that records the usual residents of the country.
- It is prepared at various levels, including local, sub-district, district, state, and national.
- The creation of the NPR is governed by the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
- It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR.
- A usual resident is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more, or a person intending to reside for next 6 months or more.
Differences between NPR and Census
- The census involves a detailed questionnaire, collecting information such as age, sex, marital status, occupation, religion, and more.
- The NPR collects basic demographic data and biometric particulars.
- The census is governed by the Census Act, 1948, while the NPR operates under a set of rules framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Stipulated process for self-enumeration
- Self-enumeration for the Census will be available only to households that have updated their NPR details online.
- The Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI), responsible for the Census, has developed a web-based “self-enumeration (SE)” portal, presently available in English.
- The mobile-friendly portal, yet to be launched, will allow users to register their mobile numbers in the NPR database, self-enumerate, and fill in Houselisting Operations details.
- During self-enumeration, the collection of Aadhaar or mobile numbers is mandatory.
How are NPR and NRC related?
- According to the Citizenship Rules 2003, the NPR is the initial step in compiling the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC/NRC).
- The NPR was updated in 2015, but new questions were added as part of a trial exercise involving 30 lakh respondents in September 2019.
- The exercise is seen as a step towards the compilation of the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) as per the Citizenship Rules, 2003.
What about data confidentiality?
- While similar data is collected through the Census, individual data remains confidential under Section 15 of the Census Act, 1948.
- Only aggregated data is released at administrative levels.
- Data collected under the NPR are shared with states and used by the Central government for various welfare schemes at the individual level.
Way forward
To ensure the success of the digital Census and self-enumeration process, the government should consider the following:
- Conduct thorough awareness campaigns to educate citizens about the self-enumeration process and its benefits.
- Provide multi-language support on the self-enumeration portal to accommodate diverse language preferences.
- Address concerns regarding data privacy and security to build trust among citizens.
- Establish a robust support system to assist citizens in case of technical issues or questions during self-enumeration.
- Regularly update and improve the self-enumeration portal based on user feedback to enhance user experience and ease of use.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Private: National Population Register Short
Citizenship and Related Issues
Census: A prerequisite for economic development
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Census
Mains level: Census importance, challenges and implications of postponing
Context
- India aspires to be a $10 trillion economy by 2035. To achieve this, conducting population Census, due in 2021 but postponed indefinitely because of Covid, is necessary. Such data is essential for planning at the village or block level to usher in economic and social development, ensure better governance, and increase the transparency of public schemes and programmes.
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What is a census?
- It is nothing but a process of collecting, compiling, analysing, evaluating, publishing and disseminating statistical data regarding the population.
- It covers demographic, social and economic data and is provided as of a particular date.
What is the purpose?
- To collect the information for planning and formulation policies for Central and the State Governments.
- The census tells us who we are and where we are going as a nation.
- It helps the government decide how to distribute funds and assistance to states and localities.
- The census data is widely used by National and International Agencies, scholars, business people, industrialists, and many more.
Why conducting a Census has become a prerequisite for economic development?
- Lack of complete civil registration system: Since many states (and districts) lack a complete civil registration system with a full count of birth and death data, demographers face enormous challenges in providing population counts at the district level. In several instances, estimates tend to be far off the mark, especially for newly formed districts and states.
- Changing pattern of migration: migration data collected in the Census has great implications for economic activities and social harmony. As India progresses economically, the pattern of migration has been changing in unprecedented ways. The migration pattern in India in the present decade is very different from what the data in Census 2001 and 2011 suggest. Hence, in the absence of updated data, it is difficult to draw conclusions about migration in India.
- Other surveys does not provide comprehensive data: The Census counts everyone across regions, classes, creeds, religions, languages, castes, marital status, differently-abled populations, occupation patterns etc. Most national-level surveys such as NFHS and NSSO do not have representative data at the population subgroup level, unlike the former. The existence of numerous faiths and languages as well as the expansion or extinction of such communities will be known only via population Census.
In the absence of it how demographers collect data?
- Estimates using past census information: In the absence of updated data, demographers estimate the annual population count at the district level using past Census information for the intercensal or postcensal period. Say, to estimate the population of a district in India in the year 2015, they use the district-level population growth rate between the 2001 and 2011 Census.
- Such estimates are fair for maximum of 10 years: Such demographic exercises give reasonably fair estimates when the year of population estimation is within the range of a maximum of 10 years. Beyond this period, estimations can be erroneous, particularly at the district level due to dynamic patterns of population components, among them fertility, mortality and migration.
- Assumptions based model in faster demographic transition: Many districts of India are experiencing a faster demographic transition with varying fertility and mortality rates. So, using the growth rate of 2001-2011 for the period after 2021 becomes more of an assumption-based model than a model that reflects empirical reality. Covid-19 further makes the situation complex as it impacts the fertility and mortality situation in the country.
Demand for caste census in India
- India’s population has since increased three-fold to 1.21 billion in 2011.
- Experts believe the economic status of the dominant OBC castes have improved in the past 80 years and certain castes have not benefited as much.
- So, the new caste census is required to measure the economic and social well-being of all castes.
History and a Way ahead
- India has a long history of conducting Census without interruption from 1881 with the rare exception of Assam in 1981 and Jammu Kashmir in 1991 due to socio-political unrest and secessionist movements.
- Conducting it regular at the national and sub-national levels has been a matter of pride for India.
- It has to be continued until India achieves a fool-proof civil registration system and a dynamic National Population Register.
Conclusion
- Conducting the population Census is a mammoth task, of course. Full involvement of the government system is necessary to organise it. But the it is necessary since it forms the basis of all the plans and programmes that the government wants to implement. Postponing the it has immediate and long-term negative consequences for India. The government and other stakeholders should take urgent steps to conduct the Census as early as possible.
Mains question
Q. What is census? Why conducting a Census has become a prerequisite for economic development and also discuss the impact of delayed census.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) and Indian Diaspora
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pravasi Bhartiya Divas
Mains level: Contribution of Indian Diaspora
Inaugurating the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention on, Prime Minister said Indians living overseas are “brand ambassadors” of the country on foreign soil. The theme of the PBD Convention is “Diaspora: Reliable partners for India’s progress in Amrit Kaal”.
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD)
- PBD is a celebratory day observed (starting in 2003) on 9 January to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community towards the development of India.
- The day commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to Mumbai on 9 January 1915.
- Established in 2000, it is sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs.
History of the Indian expat
- The 19th and early 20th centuries saw thousands of Indians shipped to those countries to work on plantations in British colonies, which were reeling under a labour crisis due to the abolition of slavery in 1833-34.
- As part of the second wave of migration, nearly 20 lakh Indians went to Singapore and Malaysia to work in farms.
- The third and fourth wave saw professionals heading to western countries and workers going to the Gulf and west Asian countries in the wake of the oil boom.
Numbers and geographical spread
- There are 4.7 crore Indians living overseas. The number includes NRIs, PIOs, OCIs, and students.
- Excluding students, the number stands at 3.22 crore, including 1.87 crore PIOs and 1.35 crore NRIs.
- According to the World Migration Report, prepared by the International Organisation for Migration under the UN, India has the largest emigrant population in the world.
- It is the top origin country globally, followed by Mexico, Russian and China.
Indian Diaspora: Historical perspective
- Imperialism led-migration: The incorporation of the British Empire in India can be linked to the existence of modern Indian Diaspora all over the world.
- Indentured labor: Dating back to the nineteenth century, Indian indentured labor was taken over to the British colonies in different parts of the world.
- World Wars: In the post-World War II period, most of the Indian labor and professionals got scattered and it was a worldwide phenomenon.
- European reconstruction: The reconstruction of Europe after the war was provided by Indians and other South Asians, particularly in the United Kingdom and Netherlands.
- Modern brain-drain: Most recently, Indians have made their presence visibly felt in professions in countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Major sections of Indian Diaspora
(1) Indians in the Gulf
- Around 8.5 million Indians live and work in the Gulf countries, one of the largest concentrations of migrants in the world.
- The geographical and historical proximity makes it a convenient destination for Indians.
- Today migrants from across India are working and living in the Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait).
(2) Indians in USA
- In recent decades the population has grown substantially, with 2.4 million Indian immigrants resident in the United States as of 2015.
- This makes the foreign-born from India the second-largest immigrant group in the US after Mexicans.
Categorizing Indian’s abroad
Overseas Indians, officially known as Non-resident Indians (NRIs) or Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs), are people of Indian birth, descent or origin who live outside the Republic of India:
- Non-Resident Indians (NRI): NRIs are Indians who are residents of foreign countries.
- Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs): The PIO category was abolished in 2015 and merged with the OCI category. However, existing PIO cards are valid till December 31, 2023. PIO refers to a foreign citizen (except a national of Pakistan, Afghanistan Bangladesh, China, Iran, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal) who at any time held an Indian passport, or who or either of their parents/ grandparents/great grandparents was born and permanently resided in India as defined in Government of India Act, 1935, or who is a spouse of a citizen of India or a PIO.
- Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs): A separate category of OCI was carved out in 2006. An OCI card was given to a foreign national who was eligible to be a citizen of India on January 26, 1950, was a citizen of India on or at any time after January 26, 1950, or belonged to a territory that became part of India after August 15, 1947. Minor children of such individuals, except those who were a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh, were also eligible for OCI cards.
Significance of Indian diaspora
(A) Contribution in the freedom struggle
- Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle for ending institutionalized discrimination against Indians in South Africa became an inspiring legend for enduring sentimentalism about the diaspora in modern India.
- The diaspora also became a vehicle for promoting the cause of Indian independence among the political elites of major countries.
- As the independence movement gathered momentum at home, it began to influence many Indian communities abroad.
(B) Diaspora as Cultural extension
- The act of migration is not just limited to geographical limits; rather it is a cultural extension.
- Let us take the example of the Sikh community. The Sikhs are one of the largest migrants from India to the UK, Canada and many other countries.
- They have very well maintained their culture and ethnic existence for decades.
(C) Remittances
- Money sent home by migrants is one of the largest financial inflows to developing countries.
- The latest World Bank Migration and Development Brief, released in November 2022, said, For the first time a single country, India, is on track to receive more than $100 billion in yearly remittances.
- In 2020, India and China received the largest amounts of international remittances in Asia, with a combined total of more than $140 billion, it added.
(D) Diaspora as ‘Agents of change’
- Diaspora acts as ‘agents of change’ facilitating and enhancing investment, accelerating industrial development, and boosting international trade and tourism.
- Diaspora’s motives to invest in India are long-lasting as many of them wish to establish a long-term base in India.
(E) Technological development and entrepreneurship
- Another tangible long-term advantage in nurturing ties with an active diaspora is an accelerated technological sector and increased socio-economic development.
- Some examples to illustrate this phenomenon are Bengaluru, Gurugram and Hyderabad as thriving IT hubs that not only house multinational companies (MNCs) but also multiple Indian start-ups.
(F) Enhancing India’s global say
- India’s permanent membership to the UNSC can become a reality with support from the diaspora.
- Apart from political pressures and ministerial and diplomatic level lobbying, India can leverage its diaspora to influence states such as Canada and Mexico to support India’s membership
Most Importantly,
(G) Diaspora diplomacy
- The diaspora’s ability to spread Indian soft power, lobby for India’s national interests, and contribute economically to India’s rise is now well-recognized.
- A less tangible but important advantage in having a large immigrant group is “diaspora diplomacy”.
- The recent engagement of Indian leaders in US general elections is a continuation of the extraordinary political investment in engaging the Indian diaspora.
India’s engagement with Diaspora: A policy-wise perspective
- Many of the themes of India’s contemporary diaspora policy had their origins in the approach of the Indian national movement before independence.
- The nationalist backlash against the Indian communities in Africa and Asia in the 1950s and 1960s saw Delhi consciously distance itself from the diasporic communities.
- As India turned inwards, Delhi also took a dim view of the “brain drain” as many well-trained Indians began to look for opportunities elsewhere.
- It was only in the late 1980s that Delhi began to rethink its approach to the diaspora.
Change in recent years
- PM Rajiv Gandhi was the first to appreciate the potential role diaspora could play in advancing national development and improving India’s ties with the US.
- In 2000, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was commenced to be celebrated and also led to the formation of a separate Ministry for Overseas Indians under PM AB Vajpayee.
- Other innovative initiatives like the Know India Programme (KIP) and Study India Programme (SIP) were launched.
- These have engaged the youth living abroad and the Tracing the Roots Scheme, through which some Indians have been able to trace their roots in India.
Most recent initiatives
- India has been following the spirit of 4 Cs i.e. Connect – Contribute – Celebrate – Care.
- There is a dedicated Diaspora Welfare Officer.
- The authorities have been ensuring 100 percent grievance redressal through E-Migration Portal, Madad Portal, and CPGRAMS.
Various policy initiatives
- Education: NRI seats are reserved in all the medical, engineering and other professional colleges.
- Voting rights: The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 2017 the provision would help non-resident Indians (NRIs) to participate in the electoral process through ‘proxy voting’.
- Know India Program (KIP): It is a flagship initiative for Diaspora engagement which familiarizes Indian-origin youth (18-30 years) with their Indian roots and contemporary India has been refashioned.
- Minimum Referral Wages (MRW): A number of policies were announced keeping in mind the protection of welfare and interest of Indians abroad; for example, the 2014 Minimum Referral Wages (MRW).
- Easing the passport facility: The last three years saw the launch of Head Post Offices as passport centers enabling thousands more to apply for a passport.
Challenges faced by Diaspora
- Racial antagonism: Rising incidence of hate speech and crimes against Indians by the locals due to racism, and communalism emboldened by coming of nationalist and ultra-nationalist governments to power in many countries.
- Protectionism: Fear of losing jobs and educational opportunities to outsiders has resulted in stricter visa rules in many countries including the USA, Australia, etc.
- Terrorism: Sectarian crisis, increasing terrorist activities and war in the Middle East countries (Yemen, Oman, Libya, Syria etc) leave our diaspora vulnerable to attacks.
- Political Polarization: Many Indians abroad are turning against India since the change of government and some extreme right wing factionists.
- Anti-national tendencies: India has had problems with negative campaigning and foreign funding, coming from abroad, for separatist movements like the Khalistan movement.
Way forward
- India has enjoyed being viewed more favourably by the world since 2014, and the diaspora can further these perceptions.
- India needs both additional resources as well as better systems to deal with the recurring challenges of supporting citizens abroad.
- The diaspora can step up and act as Indian ‘ambassadors’, as it is insufficient and ineffective for a country or its missions abroad to rely only on press releases to change public opinion.
- The diaspora can provide the requisite strategic impulse, which makes it all the more important to unlock their potential.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and their concerns
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas and its theme and related facts
Mains level: Overseas citizens of India, and their concerns
Context
- Government will observe the 17th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The day is meant to celebrate the contributions of India’s diaspora. The theme for this year’s event is, “Diaspora: Reliable Partners for India’s Progress in Amrit Kaal”.
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Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas
- Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (Non-Resident Indian Day) is a celebratory day observed (starting in 2003) on 9 January by the Republic of India to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community towards the development of India. The day commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to Mumbai on 9 January 1915.
Who are the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI)?
- OCI are not citizens: Overseas Citizenship of India is a form of permanent residency available to people of Indian origin and their spouses which allows them to live and work in India indefinitely. Despite its name, OCI status is not citizenship and does not grant the right to vote in Indian elections or hold public office.
- It can be revoked: The Indian government can revoke OCI status in a wide variety of circumstances. As of 2020, there are 6 million holders of OCI cards among the Indian Overseas diaspora.
What are the concerns of OCI/NRI persons?
- Scheme for dual citizenship: Originally conceptualised in 2003 by the then NDA government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the OCI scheme was envisaged as a dual-citizenship project.
- All rights of citizen of India: OCIs would enjoy all rights as normal citizens except the right to hold public office and cast their vote.
- Citizenship to OCI from certain countries: The Vajpayee government introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2003 in Parliament. The statement accompanying the Bill, that was passed by Parliament in December that year clearly stated that it was meant to provide dual citizenship to persons of Indian origin from certain countries.
- Present government Downgraded OCI status: Nearly two decades later, the Union Home Ministry is downgrading the OCI scheme from dual-citizenship to virtually a residency permit scheme. The ministry’s statements in circulars and courts declaring that OCIs are not Indian citizens and that they would not enjoy any fundamental rights under the Indian Constitution have been particularly disheartening.
What are the ambiguities about the downgrading of OCI status?
- Confusion over rights: There is considerable legal confusion about the status of OCIs. Can they practice certain professions like journalism without prior government permission? Do contributions by OCIs residing in India to charities/schools violate the country’s laws?
- Problem in donation: During the pandemic, resident OCIs had to ensure their donations went only to NGOs that had FCRA clearance. As a result, many local level initiatives could not be supported with their monetary contributions.
- Confusion over the status: Very often OCIs have been confronted with remarks, including at courts, that we are foreigners in India. Unlike several other countries, the Indian Constitution does not have exhaustive provisions on citizenship.
Making a case of citizenship for OCI
- Vasudaiva kutumbakam philosophy: The Government of India announced that India’s Presidency of G20 will be grounded in the principles of “Vasudaiva kutumbakam” wherein the entire world is considered as one family.
- Push to Mobility for diaspora: Hopefully such political homilies are reflected in the way the government thinks about the idea of citizenship in relation to the increasingly mobile Indian diaspora.
- Injustice to people born in India: Clearly, an elemental question is whether it is proper to cancel the citizenship of people born in the country, and who have continued engagement with it, merely because they have acquired foreign citizenship. No other progressive democracy does that today, even though most countries had similar laws when India enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- Removing the outdated laws: In a recent address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories to focus on quality of service over outdated laws and rules, to achieve the goal of making India a developed country by 2047. Realising the essence of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003 is in the spirit of the PM’s directive.
Conclusion
- OCI contribute immensely to India at home and abroad. But granting a citizenship to Overseas citizens of India will create structural asymmetry in economic, social, political life of ordinary people of India. It will open the flood gates for demand for dual citizenships from other sections of diaspora.
Mains Question
Q. What are problems of Overseas Citizens of India? Discuss why OCI deserve the better status in India?
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Centre seeks 6 more months to frame CAA rules
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAA
Mains level: Issues with CAA
The Union Home Ministry has sought another extension of 6 months to frame the rules of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), without which it cannot be implemented.
Why in news?
- This is the seventh such extension sought by the Ministry.
- The legislation is contentious issue in West Bengal.
- The Act is aimed at giving citizenship to the Matua community in West Bengal who trace their origins to present day Bangladesh.
What is Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019?
- The act is sought to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship of India.
- In other words, it intends to make it easier for non-Muslim immigrants from India’s three Muslim-majority neighbours to become citizens of India.
- Under The Citizenship Act, 1955, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalization is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, as well as for 11 of the previous 14 years.
- The amendment relaxes the second requirement from 11 years to 6 years as a specific condition for applicants belonging to these six religions, and the aforementioned three countries.
- It exempts the members of the six communities from any criminal case under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport Act, 1920 if they entered India before December 31, 2014.
Key feature: Defining illegal migrants
- Illegal migrants cannot become Indian citizens in accordance with the present laws.
- Under the CAA, an illegal migrant is a foreigner who: (i) enters the country without valid travel documents like a passport and visa, or (ii) enters with valid documents, but stays beyond the permitted time period.
- Illegal migrants may be put in jail or deported under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.
Exceptions
- The Bill 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.
Controversy with the Act
- Country of Origin: The Act classifies migrants based on their country of origin to include only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
- Other religious minorities ignored: It is unclear why illegal migrants from only six specified religious minorities have been included in the Act.
- Defiance of purpose: India shares a border with Myanmar, which has had a history of persecution of a religious minority, the Rohingya Muslims.
- Date of Entry: It is also unclear why there is a differential treatment of migrants based on their date of entry into India, i.e., whether they entered India before or after December 31, 2014.
- Against the spirit of Secularism: Further, granting citizenship on the grounds of religion is seen to be against the secular nature of the Constitution which has been recognised as part of the basic structure that cannot be altered by Parliament.
Conclusion
- India is a constitutional democracy with a basic structure that assures a secure and spacious home for all Indians.
- Being partitioned on religious grounds, India has to undertake a balancing act for protecting the religious minorities in its neighbourhood.
- These minorities are under constant threat of persecution and vandalism.
- India needs to balance its civilization duties to protect those who are prosecuted in the neighbourhood.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Census exercise postponed till September 2023
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Census of India
Mains level: Significance of Census
The decennial census exercise has been postponed till September, at least, as the government informed States that the date of freezing of administrative boundaries has been extended till June 30.
What is the Census of India?
- The decennial Census of India has been conducted 16 times, as of 2021.
- While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881.
- Post 1949, it has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act.
- The last census was held in 2011, whilst the next was to be held in 2021. But it has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What is the purpose of the census?
- To collect the information for planning and formulation policies for Central and the State Governments.
- The census tells us who we are and where we are going as a nation.
- It helps the government decide how to distribute funds and assistance to states and localities.
- The census data is widely used by National and International Agencies, scholars, business people, industrialists, and many more.
Why is the census important?
- Vital statistics for governance: The census is the foundational database for official statistics and policymaking in a modern economy. Outdated census data makes block and district-level planning particularly difficult, since survey data do not offer that kind of high resolution.
- Provides most credible statistics: Information on Demography, Economic Activity, Literacy and Education, Housing & Household Amenities, Urbanisation, Fertility and Mortality, SCs and STs, Language, Religion, Migration, Disability and many other socio-cultural and demographic data.
- Delimitation/reservation of Constituencies: Parliamentary/Assembly/Panchayats and other Local Bodies are also done on the basis of the demographic data thrown up by the Census.
- Administration: Census is the basis for reviewing the country’s progress in the past decade, monitoring the ongoing Schemes of the Government.
- Planning the future: It provides pathways for planning and resolving problems, and fixing deficiencies. Government goes through analysis over the census data and formulates policies for the future accordingly.
- Detailed accounts: The best of sample surveys find it impossible to beat a census as It carries the promise of counting each and every Indian. A census is when the state connects to every individual and it will find it hard to hide or duck from the data.
- Welfare schemes: Identifying the actual beneficiaries, Census is the key to creating identity and affirming it over time. Census data enable neat, inter-temporal comparability.
Impact of delay in census 2021
(1) Discrepancies in PDS beneficiary identification
- The National Food Security Act, 2013, says that 75% of the rural population and 50% of the rural population are entitled to receive subsidised food grains from the government under the targeted public distribution system (PDS).
- Under the 2011 Census, India’s population was about 121 crore, hence PDS covered approximately 80 crore people.
- If we apply projected population of 137crore ,current delay in Census data would continue to deprive more than 10 crore people of subsidised food entitlements, with the biggest gaps in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with 2.8 crore and 1.8 crore projected exclusions respectively.
(2) Poor targeting of beneficiaries for welfare schemes
- Although the Government’s intent to use SECC data but failed at budgetary allocation for the projected expansion.
- Census data may not be used to calculate the beneficiaries of most schemes, but it is critical to policy planning, budgeting and administration.
- A number of schemes need to use the disaggregated age and fertility indicators to assess effectiveness as demographics change over time.
(3) Identifying migration data
- From the COVID19 lockdowns it is realized that the Numbers, causes and patterns of migration, which could not be answered using outdated 2011 Census data.
- The D-tables on migration from the 2011 Census were only released in 2019, so it’s outdated by the time it came out.
- Apart from the One Nation, One Ration card scheme which now allows for portability of food subsidy entitlements, the migration data is actually not used too much in broader economic policy and planning.
Why there is delay in Census?
- Administrative boundaries demarcation: As per norms, census can be conducted only three months after freezing of boundary limits of administrative units such as districts, sub-districts, tehsils, talukas etc.
- COVID-19 Pandemic: The pandemic is being cited as the official reason for the delay, but it is an unconvincing excuse. Pandemic-related restrictions were removed long back.
- CAA, NRC Issue: The Union government had declared that the 2021 census would be used to draw up an all-India NRC. The Centre is yet to frame the rules for Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
- Lack of Political will: The Union government has shown no urgency in getting census operations back on track. When questioned about the delay, it refuses to clarify when the census might take place.
Way forward
- Complete Pre-census work: Conduct house-listing and other allied activites ASAP.
- Digital census: The data collected through a mobile app will reduce the overall time taken to process the census data and to publish the results in time.
- Self-enumeration: Allowing households to self-enumerate is a new initiative but it is unclear how successful it would be in terms of data quality and completeness of coverage.
Conclusion
- The Census of India has to be saved from needless disruptions and inexplicable delays.
- Unless the census is insulated from day-to-day politics, the integrity of its data will be compromised.
- The world’s largest democracy deserves clean and honest data.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Delhi HC seeks Centre’s response against cancellation of OCI card
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NRI, OCI, PIO
Mains level: Not Much
The Delhi High Court has sought a response from the central government on a petition against the cancellation of a person’s Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card.
Who is an Overseas Citizen?
- An OCI is a category introduced by the government in 2005.
- Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) of certain categories as specified in the Citizenship Act, 1955 are eligible for being OCI cardholders.
- Some of the benefits for PIO and OCI cardholders were different until 2015 when the government merged these two categories.
- The MHA defines an OCI as a person who was a citizen of India on or after January 26, 1950; or was eligible to become a citizen of India on that date; or who is a child or grandchild of such a person, among other eligibility criteria.
- According to Section 7A of the OCI card rules, an applicant is not eligible for the OCI card if he, his parents or grandparents have ever been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Privileges to an OCI
- OCI cardholders can enter India multiple times, get a multipurpose lifelong visa to visit India, and are exempt from registering with Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) no matter how long their stay.
- If an individual is registered as an OCI for a period of five years, he/she are eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.
- At all Indian international airports, OCI cardholders are provided with special immigration counters.
- OCI cardholders can open special bank accounts in India, they can buy the non-farm property and exercise ownership rights and can also apply for a driver’s license and PAN card.
- However, OCI cardholders do not get voting rights, cannot hold a government job and purchase agricultural or farmland.
- They cannot run for public office either, nor can they travel to restricted areas without government permission.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Birth Certificate to be made mandatory for jobs, driving licence, passport, voting right
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NPR, NRC
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Central government proposes to make birth certificates a mandatory document for almost every sphere of life — admission in educational institutions, inclusion in the voter list, appointment in Central and State government jobs, issue of driving licence and passport.
Why in news?
- These changes are proposed in the draft Bill to amend the Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969.
Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBD), 1969
- The registration of births, deaths and stillbirths are compulsory under the provisions of RBD Act in all parts of the Country.
- The normal period of 21 days (from the date of occurrence) has been prescribed for reporting the birth, death and stillbirth events.
- Registration of birth and death is already compulsory under the RBD Act, 1969 and violating it is a punishable offence.
Why need amendment?
- The database may be used to update the Population Register and the electoral register, and Aadhaar, ration card, passport and driving licence databases after the amendment.
- Presently, the registration of births and deaths is done by the local registrar appointed by States.
What are the proposed amendments?
Ans. Unified Database of Birth and Death
- It is proposed that the Chief Registrar (appointed by the States) would maintain a unified database at the State level.
- It would then integrate it with the data at the “national level,” maintained by the Registrar General of India (RGI).
- The amendments will imply that the Centre will be a parallel repository of data.
- It shall be mandatory for hospitals and medical institutions to provide a copy of all death certificates, stating the cause of death, to the local registrar apart from the relative of the deceased.
Significance of the database
- It would help update:
- Population Register prepared under the Citizenship Act, 1955;
- Electoral registers or electoral rolls prepared under the Representation of the People Act, 1951
- Aadhaar database prepared under the Aadhaar Act, 2016;
- Ration card database prepared under the National Food Security Act, 2013;
- Passport database prepared under the Passport Act; and
- Driving licence database under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, and
- Other databases at the national level are subject to provisons of Section 17 (1) of the RBD Act, 1969
What are the newly proposed changes?
- The centrally-stored birth/death data will be updated in real-time without any human interface required.
- This would lead to addition and deletion from the electoral roll when an individual turns 18, and after death, respectively.
Why such move?
- The government intends to improve compliance by making the registration mandatory to avail basic services such as admission in schools and registration of marriages.
- Provisions exist for compulsory registration of births and deaths but after the law is amended, it will be
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Citizenship and Related Issues
MHA annual report underlines need to update NPR
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NRC, NPR
Mains level: NRC issue
The Home Ministry in its latest annual report has underlined the need to update the National Population Register (NPR) database across the country, except Assam.
What did the MHA say?
- The report said the NPR is prepared under various provisions of the Citizenship Rules, 2003, framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- In 2015, a few fields such as name, gender, date and place of birth, place of residence and father’s and mother’s name were updated and Aadhaar, mobile and ration card numbers were collected.
- To incorporate the changes due to birth, death and migration, the MHA pressed the need to update it again.
What is National Population Register (NPR)?
- The NPR is a Register of usual residents of the country.
- It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National level.
- This is carried under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship Rules, 2003 (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards).
- It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR.
- A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more.
Why NPR is under fire?
- Though NPR was first compiled in 2010 and updated in 2015, the new questions were part of a trial exercise involving 30 lakh respondents in September 2019.
- The exercise has perceived the first step toward the compilation of the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) according to Citizenship Rules, 2003.
How are NRIC and NPR related?
- Out of the NPR, a set of all usual residents of India, the government proposes to create a database of “citizens of India”.
- Thus, the “National Register of Indian Citizens” (NRIC) is a sub-set of the NPR.
- The NRIC will be prepared at the local, sub-district, district and State levels after verifying the citizenship status of the residents.
- The rules say the particulars of every family and individual found in the Population Register shall be verified and scrutinized by the Local Registrar.
How NPR is different from Census?
- The census involves a detailed questionnaire — there were 29 items to be filled up in the 2011 census.
- They are aimed at eliciting the particulars of every person, including age, sex, marital status, children, occupation, birthplace, mother tongue, religion, disability and whether they belonged to any SC or ST.
- On the other hand, the NPR collects basic demographic data and biometric particulars.
- While the census is legally backed by the Census Act, 1948, the NPR is a mechanism outlined in a set of rules framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
CAA is an internal matter of India: Bangladesh Minister
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: CAA
Bangladesh Information Minister has said that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) framed to grant Indian citizenship to minorities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan was an “internal matter” of India.
What is Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019?
- The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) is an act that was passed in the Parliament on December 11, 2019.
- The 2019 CAA amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 allowing Indian citizenship for religious minorities who fled from the neighboring Muslim majority countries before December 2014 due to “religious persecution or fear of religious persecution”.
- However, the Act excludes Muslims.
- Under CAA, migrants who entered India by December 31, 2014, and had suffered “religious persecution or fear of religious persecution” in their country of origin, were made eligible for citizenship by the new law.
- These type of migrants will be granted fast track Indian citizenship in six years.
- The amendment also relaxed the residence requirement for naturalization of these migrants from eleven years to five.
Key feature: Defining illegal migrants
- Illegal migrants cannot become Indian citizens in accordance with the present laws.
- Under the CAA, an illegal migrant is a foreigner who: (i) enters the country without valid travel documents like a passport and visa, or (ii) enters with valid documents, but stays beyond the permitted time period.
- Illegal migrants may be put in jail or deported under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.
Exceptions
- The Bill 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.
Controversy with the Act
- Country of Origin: The Act classifies migrants based on their country of origin to include only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
- Other religious minorities ignored: It is unclear why illegal migrants from only six specified religious minorities have been included in the Act.
- Defiance of purpose: India shares a border with Myanmar, which has had a history of persecution of a religious minority, the Rohingya Muslims.
- Date of Entry: It is also unclear why there is a differential treatment of migrants based on their date of entry into India, i.e., whether they entered India before or after December 31, 2014.
Why discuss this?
- The CAA became a huge cause of concern between India and Bangladesh when it was passed by the Parliament in December 2019, with Dhaka seeking a written assurance from India.
- Dhaka, then was irked by the remarks about religious persecution of minority Hindus in Bangladesh.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Case of Citizenship to Stateless Indian origin Tamils
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAA
Mains level: Indian origin tamils, Debate over granting citizenship
Context
- The Supreme Court of India has now posted the 232 petitions challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to be heard on December 6, 2022. However, there is another issue linked to the subject, i.e., the unresolved status of Indian origin Tamils who repatriated from Sri Lanka.
Present status of Sri Lankan refugees in India
- For over four decades, Indian origin Tamils have been classified as stateless persons, based on technicalities. Nations High Commission for Refugees, “Comprehensive Solutions Strategy for Sri Lankan Refugees”, there are around 29,500 Indian origin Tamils currently living in India.
Historical background of citizenship to Indian origin Tamils
- As Indentured plantation workers: Indian origin Tamils were brought in as indentured labourers to work in plantations. They remained mostly legally undocumented and socially isolated from the native Sri Lankan Tamil and Sinhalese communities due to the policies of the British.
- Denied citizenship led to stateless population: After 1947, Sri Lanka witnessed rising Sinhalese nationalism, leaving no room for their political and civil participation. They were denied citizenship rights and existed as a ‘stateless’ population, numbering close to 10 lakhs by 1960.
- Bilateral pacts granted citizenship: As an ethnolinguistic minority without voting rights, this resulted in a double disadvantage till the two national governments addressed this issue. Subsequently, under the bilateral Sirimavo-Shastri Pact (1964) and the Sirimavo-Gandhi Pact (1974), six lakh people along with their natural increase would be granted Indian citizenship upon their repatriation.
- Civil wars forcing to seek asylum in India: The Sri Lankan civil war resulted in a spike in Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian origin Tamils together seeking asylum in India. This resulted in a Union Ministry of Home Affairs directive to stop the grant of citizenship to those who arrived in India after July 1983.
- Focus on Refugee welfare and rehabilitation: The focus of the Indian and Tamil Nadu governments shifted to refugee welfare and rehabilitation. The legal destiny of Indian origin Tamils has been largely intertwined with that of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, and both cohorts have been relegated to ‘refugee’ status.
- Classified as Illegal migrants as per the CAA 2003: Indian origin Tamils who arrived after 1983 came through unauthorized channels or without proper documentation and came to be classified as ‘illegal migrants’ as per the CAA 2003. This classification has resulted in their statelessness and blocking of potential legal pathways to citizenship.
How to overcome the problem of statelessness?
- While constitutional courts have not had an occasion to deal with the question of statelessness, there have been two recent judgments (Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, Justice G.R. Swaminathan), taking these issues head on.
- Judgment on P. Ulaganathan vs Government of India (2019): The status of citizenship of Indian origin Tamils at the Kottapattu and Mandapam camps came up for consideration. The court recognized the distinction between Indian origin Tamils and Sri Lankan Tamils and held that a continuous period of statelessness of Indian origin Tamils offends their fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The court further held that the Union Government has implied powers to grant relaxation in conferring citizenship and prescribed that a humanitarian approach, shorn of the rigors of law, should be adopted.
- Abirami S. vs The Union of India 2022: Statelessness is something to be avoided. The court further held that the principles of the CAA, 2019, which relaxes the conditions for citizenship for Hindus from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, would also apply to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. As such, these judgments have provided categorial judicial guidance to the Union of India on how to utilize an expanded and liberal interpretation of the CAA, 2019 to overcome statelessness.
- Supreme Court (Committee for C.R. of C.A.P. and Ors. vs State of Arunachal Pradesh 2015): An undertaking made by the Government of India with respect to grant of citizenship inheres a right in the stateless or refugee population. As such, India has made repeated undertakings, through the 1964 and 1974 pacts, which have created a legitimate expectation among the Indian origin Tamils and would entitle them to be granted citizenship.
- Obligatory International customary law: The situation of statelessness of Indian origin Tamils is ‘de jure’, created from the failure in implementing the 1964 and 1974 pacts. De jure statelessness is recognized in international customary law. Therefore, India has an obligation to remedy the situation.
How other nations deals with statelessness situation?
- United States: Remedying statelessness is not a novel process in law. While dealing with a similar situation, in 1994, the United States enacted the Immigration and the Nationality Technical Corrections Act to retroactively grant citizenship to all children born to an alien father and citizen mother.
- Brazil: Through the Constitutional Amendment No. 54 of 2007 retroactively, Brazil granted citizenship to children under jus sanguinis, which was earlier stripped by an earlier amendment, i.e., Constitutional Amendment No. 3 of 1994.
What India can do?
- Any corrective legislative action by the Government of India to eliminate statelessness should necessarily include retroactive citizenship for Indian origin Tamils.
Conclusion
- India has provided the one of largest refuge to people in the world including Tibetan, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi. Despite not being a signatory to UN refugee convention. any decision of granting citizenship has to be based on national interest rather than emotional connect.
Mains Question
Q. What are rules for granting the citizenship to foreigner in India? What are the hurdles in Tamil Sri Lankan getting their citizenship? How can Sri Lankan Tamil get citizenship by applying the rule of intelligible differentia under article 14?
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAA
Mains level: Read the attached story
A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) U U Lalit will hear the challenge to the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
What is Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019?
- The act is sought to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship of India.
- In other words, it intends to make it easier for non-Muslim immigrants from India’s three Muslim-majority neighbours to become citizens of India.
- Under The Citizenship Act, 1955, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalization is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, as well as for 11 of the previous 14 years.
- The amendment relaxes the second requirement from 11 years to 6 years as a specific condition for applicants belonging to these six religions, and the aforementioned three countries.
- It exempts the members of the six communities from any criminal case under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport Act, 1920 if they entered India before December 31, 2014.
Key feature: Defining illegal migrants
- Illegal migrants cannot become Indian citizens in accordance with the present laws.
- Under the CAA, an illegal migrant is a foreigner who: (i) enters the country without valid travel documents like a passport and visa, or (ii) enters with valid documents, but stays beyond the permitted time period.
- Illegal migrants may be put in jail or deported under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.
Exceptions
- The Bill 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.
Controversy with the Act
- Country of Origin: The Act classifies migrants based on their country of origin to include only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
- Other religious minorities ignored: It is unclear why illegal migrants from only six specified religious minorities have been included in the Act.
- Defiance of purpose: India shares a border with Myanmar, which has had a history of persecution of a religious minority, the Rohingya Muslims.
- Date of Entry: It is also unclear why there is a differential treatment of migrants based on their date of entry into India, i.e., whether they entered India before or after December 31, 2014.
- Against the spirit of Secularism: Further, granting citizenship on the grounds of religion is seen to be against the secular nature of the Constitution which has been recognised as part of the basic structure that cannot be altered by Parliament.
Basis of challenging in Supreme Court
- The challenge rests primarily on the grounds that the law violates Article 14 of the Constitution that guarantees that no person shall be denied the right to equality before law or the equal protection of law in the territory of India.
The Supreme Court has developed a two-pronged test to examine a law on the grounds of Article 14.
- First, any differentiation between groups of persons must be founded on “intelligible differentia”
- Second, that differentia must have a rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved by the Act
- Simply put, for a law to satisfy the conditions under Article 14, it has to first create a “reasonable class” of subjects that it seeks to govern under the law.
- Even if the classification is reasonable, any person who falls in that category has to be treated alike.
What happens next?
- The listing of the CAA challenge indicates that the hearing will be fast-tracked.
- The court will have to ensure that all pleadings, written submissions are filed and served to the opposite party before it is listed for final hearing.
- Some petitioners could also seek a referral to a larger Constitution Bench.
- However, the challenge is to a statute and does not directly involve interpretation of the Constitution.
- These issues are also likely to be debated before the court allots time for the final hearing.
Way forward
- India is a constitutional democracy with a basic structure that assures a secure and spacious home for all Indians.
- Being partitioned on religious grounds, India has to undertake a balancing act for protecting the religious minorities in its neighbourhood.
- These minorities are under constant threat of persecution and vandalism.
- India needs to balance its civilization duties to protect those who are prosecuted in the neighbourhood.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
What are Foreigners’ Tribunals?
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NRC, NPR
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Guwahati High Court has asked the Centre and the Assam government to collectively decide whether or not the ministerial staff for 200 additional Foreigners’ Tribunals (FT) would be appointed.
Do you know?
The Guwahati High Court has largest jurisdiction in terms of states, with its area covering the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram.
What is Foreigners Tribunal?
- The foreigners tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, unique to Assam, to determine if a person staying illegally is a “foreigner” or not.
- With Assam’s NRC as the backdrop, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has laid out specific guidelines to detect, detain and deport foreign nationals staying illegally across the country.
- The MHA has amended the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, and has empowered district magistrates in all States and UTs to set up tribunals to decide whether a person staying illegally in India is a foreigner or not.
- Earlier, such powers to constitute tribunals vested with the Centre only.
Why need such tribunals?
- In other parts, once a ‘foreigner’ has been apprehended by the police for staying illegally, he or she is produced before the local court under the Passport Act, 1920, or the Foreigners Act, 1946.
- The punishment ranges from imprisonment of three months to eight years.
- Once the accused have completed the sentence, the court orders their deportation, and they are moved to detention centres till the country of origin accepts them.
What was the last amendment?
- The 1964 order on Constitution of Tribunals said: “The Central Government may by order, refer the question as to whether a person is not a foreigner within meaning of the Foreigners Act, 1946 to a Tribunal to be constituted for the purpose.
- The amended order issued says – “for words Central Government may,’ the words ‘the Central Government or the State Government or the UT administration or the District Collector or the District Magistrate may’ shall be substituted.”
Impact of the Amendment
- The amended Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 2019 also empowers individuals to approach the Tribunals.
- Earlier only the State administration could move the Tribunal against a suspect, but with the final NRC about to be published and to give adequate opportunity to those not included, this has been done.
- If a person doesn’t find his or her name in the final list, they could move the Tribunal.
- The amended order also allows District Magistrates to refer individuals who haven’t filed claims against their exclusion from NRC to the Tribunals to decide if they are foreigners or not.
- Opportunity will also be given to those who haven’t filed claims by referring their cases to the Tribunals.
- Fresh summons will be issued to them to prove their citizenship.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Manipur House gives nod to National Register of Citizens (NRC)
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NRC, NPR
Mains level: Read the attached story
Bowing to demands from tribal groups, the Manipur Assembly has resolved to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and establish a State Population Commission (SPC).
To date, Assam is the only northeastern State to have implemented the NRC.
What is National Register of Citizens (NRC)?
- The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register of all Indian citizens whose creation is mandated by the 2003 amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- The register was first prepared after the 1951 Census of India.
- Its purpose is to document all the legal citizens of India so that the illegal immigrants can be identified and deported.
- It has been implemented for the state of Assam starting in 2013–2014.
- The GoI announced plans to implement it for the rest of the country in 2021, but it has not yet been implemented.
NRC and Assam
- Assam, being a border state with unique problems of illegal immigration, had a register of citizens created for it in 1951 based on the 1951 census data.
- However, it was not maintained afterwards.
- For decades, the presence of migrants, often called “bahiragat” or outsiders, has been a loaded issue here.
- The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983 was then passed by the Parliament, creating a separate tribunal process for identifying illegal migrants in Assam.
- The Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in 2005, after which the Centre agreed to update the Assam NRC.
Who is a Foreigner in Assam?
- The National Register of Citizens now takes its definition of illegal immigrants from the Assam Accord – anyone who cannot prove that they or their ancestors entered the country before the midnight of March 24, 1971, would be declared a foreigner and face deportation.
- Those who entered on or after March 25, 1971, the eve of the Bangladesh War, would be declared foreigners and deported.
- This means you could be born in India in 1971 to parents who crossed the border in that year, and still be termed an illegal immigrant at the age of 48.
CAA and NRC protests
- These were a series of protests in India against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 which was enacted into law on December 12, 2019, and against the nationwide implementation of the NRC.
- Protesters in all regions are concerned that the upcoming compilation of the National Register of Citizens might be used to deprive a community of its Indian citizenship.
Back2Basics: National Population Register (NPR)
- The NPR is a database containing a list of all usual residents of the country.
- Its objective is to have a comprehensive identity database of people residing in the country.
- It is generated through house-to-house enumeration during the “house-listing” phase of the census, which is held once in 10 years.
- A usual resident for the purposes of NPR is a person who has resided in a place for six months or more, and intends to reside there for another six months or more.
- Once the basic details of the head of the family are taken by the enumerator, an acknowledgement slip will be issued. This slip may be required for enrolment in NPR, whenever that process begins.
- And, once the details are recorded in every local (village or ward), sub-district (tehsil or taluk), district and State level, there will be a population register at each of these levels.
- Together, they constitute the National Population Register.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Renouncement of Indian Citizenship
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Citizenship of India
Mains level: Brain drain from India
Over 1.6 lakh Indians renounced their citizenship in 2021, highest in the past five years, according to information provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Destination US
- Over 78,000 Indians acquired the US citizenship, the highest among all other countries.
- India does not allow dual citizenship (Pakistan does allow).
- As many as 362 Indians living in China also acquired Chinese citizenship.
Citizenship in India
- Citizenship is in the Union List under the Constitution and thus under the exclusive jurisdiction of Parliament.
- The Constitution does not define the term ‘citizen’ but gives, in Articles 5 to 11, details of various categories of persons who are entitled to citizenship.
- Unlike other provisions of the Constitution, which came into being on January 26, 1950, these articles were enforced on November 26, 1949 itself, when the Constitution was adopted.
Various provisions for Indian Citizenship
Article 5
- It provided for citizenship on the commencement of the Constitution.
- All those domiciled and born in India were given citizenship.
- Even those who were domiciled but not born in India, but either of whose parents was born in India, were considered citizens.
- Anyone who had been an ordinary resident for more than five years, too, was entitled to apply for citizenship.
Article 6
- Since Independence was preceded by Partition and migration, Article 6 laid down that anyone who migrated to India before July 19, 1949, would automatically become an Indian citizen if either of his parents or grandparents was born in India.
- But those who entered India after this date needed to register themselves.
Article 7
- Even those who had migrated to Pakistan after March 1, 1947 but subsequently returned on resettlement permits were included within the citizenship net.
- The law was more sympathetic to those who migrated from Pakistan and called them refugees than to those who, in a state of confusion, were stranded in Pakistan or went there but decided to return soon.
Article 8
- Any Person of Indian Origin residing outside India who, or either of whose parents or grandparents, was born in India could register himself or herself as an Indian citizen with Indian Diplomatic Mission.
Various Amendments for Citizenships
- According to Article 11, Parliament can go against the citizenship provisions of the Constitution.
- The Citizenship Act, 1955 was passed and has been amended four times — in 1986, 2003, 2005, and 2015.
- The Act empowers the government to determine the citizenship of persons in whose case it is in doubt.
- However, over the decades, Parliament has narrowed down the wider and universal principles of citizenship based on the fact of birth.
- Moreover, the Foreigners Act places a heavy burden on the individual to prove that he is not a foreigner.
(1) 1986 amendment
- The constitutional provision and the original Citizenship Act gave citizenship on the principle of jus soli to everyone born in India.
- However, the 1986 amendment to Section 3 was less inclusive as it added the condition that those who were born in India on or after January 26, 1950 but before July 1, 1987, shall be an Indian citizen.
- Those born after July 1, 1987 and before December 4, 2003, in addition to one’s own birth in India, can get citizenship only if either of his parents was an Indian citizen at the time of birth.
(2) 2003 amendment
- The then government made the above condition more stringent, keeping in view infiltration from Bangladesh.
- Now the law requires that for those born on or after December 4, 2004, in addition to the fact of their own birth, both parents should be Indian citizens or one parent must be Indian citizen and other should not be an illegal migrant.
- With these restrictive amendments, India has almost moved towards the narrow principle of jus sanguinis or blood relationship.
- This lay down that an illegal migrant cannot claim citizenship by naturalization or registration even if he has been a resident of India for seven years.
(3) Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019
- The amendment proposes to permit members of six communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan — to continue to live in India if they entered India before December 14, 2014.
- It also reduces the requirement for citizenship from 11 years out of the preceding 14 years, to just 6 years.
- Two notifications also exempted these migrants from the Passport Act and Foreigner Act.
- A large number of organisations in Assam protested against this Bill as it may grant citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindu illegal migrants.
Losing of Indian Citizenship
- The Citizenship Act, 1955 also lays down the three modes by which an Indian citizen may lose his/her citizenship.
- It may happen in any of the three ways: renunciation, termination and deprivation.
(1) Renunciation
- An Indian Citizen of full age and capacity can renounce his Indian citizenship by making a declaration to that effect and having it registered.
- But if such a declaration is made during any war in which India is engaged, the registration shall be withheld until the Central Government otherwise directs.
- When a male person renounces his citizenship, every minor child of him ceases to be an Indian citizen.
- Such a child may, however, resume Indian citizenship if he makes a declaration to that effect within a year of his attaining full age, i.e. 18 years.
(2) Termination
- If a citizen of India voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country, he shall cease to be a citizen of India.
- During the war period, this provision does not apply to a citizen of India, who acquires the citizenship of another country in which India may be engaged voluntarily.
(3) Deprivation
- Deprivation is a compulsory termination of citizenship of India.
- A citizen of India by naturalization, registration, domicile and residence, may be deprived of his citizenship by an order of the Central Government if it is satisfied that the Citizen has:
- Obtained the citizenship by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of any material fact
- Shown disloyalty to the Constitution of India
- Unlawfully traded or communicated with the enemy during a war
- Within five years after registration or neutralization, been imprisoned in any country for two years
- Ordinarily resident out of India for seven years continuously
Try this PYQ:
Q.With reference to India, consider the following statements:
- There is only ‘one citizenship and one domicile’.
- A citizen by birth only can become the Head of State.
- A foreigner once granted the citizenship cannot be deprived of it under any circumstances.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 2 and 3 only
Post your answers here.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Postal ballot for NRIs being contemplated
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NRI vs OCI
Mains level: Voting rights for OCI
Chief Election Commissioner, during a recent visit to South Africa and Mauritius, urged Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to register as overseas electors and told them that a proposal on postal ballots for NRIs was being contemplated by the Election Commission of India.
Why in news now?
- CECs interactions with NRIs came after Union Law Minister informed the Lok Sabha in March that the government was exploring the possibility of allowing online voting for NRIs.
- The ECI had written to the Law Ministry in 2020 proposing that NRIs be allowed to vote through postal ballots, following which the matter has been under consideration by the government.
- The ECI at present allows NRIs to register as overseas electors as long as they have not acquired the citizenship of another country.
- They have to reach their respective polling booths to cast their votes in person on voting day.
Classification of Overseas Indians
Overseas Indians, officially known as Non-resident Indians (NRIs) or Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs), are people of Indian birth, descent or origin who live outside the Republic of India:
(A) Non-Resident Indian (NRI)
- Strictly asserting non-resident refers only to the tax status of a person who, as per section 6 of the Income-tax Act of 1961, has not resided in India for a specified period for the purposes of the Act.
- The rates of income tax are different for persons who are “resident in India” and for NRIs.
(B) Person of Indian Origin (PIO)
Person of Indian Origin (PIO) means a foreign citizen (except a national of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and/or Nepal), who:
- at any time held an Indian passport OR
- either of their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents were born and permanently resident in India as defined in GoI Act, 1935 and other territories that became part of India thereafter provided neither was at any time a citizen of any of the aforesaid countries OR
- is a spouse of a citizen of India or a PIO.
(C) Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI)
- After multiple efforts by leaders across the Indian political spectrum, a pseudo-citizenship scheme was established, the “Overseas Citizenship of India”, commonly referred to as the OCI card.
- The Constitution of India does not permit full dual citizenship.
- The OCI card is effectively a long-term visa, with restrictions on voting rights and government jobs.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Defining who is ‘Assamese’: Attempts, Challenges
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Assam Accord
Mains level: Not Much
Last week, the Assam government informed the Assembly that nearly 1.44 lakh illegal foreigners had been identified in the state this year based on the 1985 Assam Accord, and around 30,000 of them had been deported to their country of origin.
Who is a foreigner under the Assam Accord?
- The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 by the Centre and the Assam government with the All Assam Student Union (AASU) and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad.
- This movement had spearheaded the 1979-85 Assam Movement against migration from Bangladesh.
- It was against all migrants from Bangladesh, irrespective of religion.
- The Accord set March 24, 1971 as a cut-off. (The Assam Movement had demanded 1951 as the cut-off.)
- Anyone who had come to Assam before midnight on that date would be an Indian citizen, while those who had come after would be dealt with as foreigners.
- The same cut-off was used in updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
What are the expressions for which the definitions have not been determined? Why are they important?
- The definitions of phrases mentioned in the Accord such as ‘Axomiya janagan’ (Assamese people), ‘khilonjia’ (indigenous) and ‘adi basinda’ (original inhabitants) were yet to be determined.
- The context is Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, which promises “constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people”.
- However, it doesn’t provide clear cut definitions to identify who would be the “Assamese people”.
- Clause 6 is important because many felt the 1971 cut-off was inadequate.
Issues with the cut-off date
- The cut-off for the rest of India is 1948, many noted that the Assam Accord would grant citizenship to a section of migrants who would be counted as foreigners elsewhere in the country.
- Clause 6 was, therefore, seen as a protective provision which would guarantee certain benefits to the Assamese people, while excluding some sections among those granted citizenship on the basis of the 1971 cut-off.
Why is the ‘Assamese’ definition difficult?
- Because Assam’s demography has been shaped by decades of migration.
- Many of the migrants had settled here during the colonial era.
- While they might not be native speakers of an indigenous language, such as Assamese or Bodo or Karbi, the question was whether the definition of “Assamese” could exclude someone, for example, whose family might have lived in Assam for 100 years.
Have any definitions been proposed?
- A key committee came in 2019, when Assam was rocked by protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which proposes to grant citizenship to various categories of foreigners including Hindus from Bangladesh.
- The government set up the committee as a means to quell the protests.
This committee recommended following persons as Assamese:
- All citizens who are part of the Assamese community
- Any person of indigenous tribal community of Assam
- Any other indigenous community of Assam
- Any other citizens of India residing in the territory or Assam on or before January 1, 1951 and
- Descendants of these categories
- In essence, this definition includes not only the indigenous people but also all other Indian citizens, irrespective of mother tongue, as long as their ancestors were staying in Assam before 1951.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Government seeks law on Rights of Foreigners
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Citizens vs aliens rights
Mains level: Rights of foreigners debate, CAA, NRC
The Union government has urged the Supreme Court to help lay down a law with a “long–lasting” implication for the country on the subject of Foreigners’ Right to approach local courts for relief after violating their visa conditions.
Why in news?
- The government’s request came during the hearing of petitions filed by foreign nationals who were charged with violating COVID-19 guidelines by participating in a religious congregation in New Delhi during peak COVID outbreak.
Citizens vs. Foreigners Rights
Fundamental Rights available to both Citizens and Foreigners (except enemy aliens) |
Fundamental Rights Available Only to Citizens of India |
|
|
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Citizenship and Related Issues
MHA seeks more time to frame CAA rules
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAA
Mains level: Issues with CAA
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has sought another extension from parliamentary committees to frame the rules of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019.
What is Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019?
- The act is sought to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship of India.
- In other words, it intends to make it easier for non-Muslim immigrants from India’s three Muslim-majority neighbours to become citizens of India.
- Under The Citizenship Act, 1955, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalization is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, as well as for 11 of the previous 14 years.
- The amendment relaxes the second requirement from 11 years to 6 years as a specific condition for applicants belonging to these six religions, and the aforementioned three countries.
- It exempts the members of the six communities from any criminal case under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport Act, 1920 if they entered India before December 31, 2014.
Key feature: Defining illegal migrants
- Illegal migrants cannot become Indian citizens in accordance with the present laws.
- Under the CAA, an illegal migrant is a foreigner who: (i) enters the country without valid travel documents like a passport and visa, or (ii) enters with valid documents, but stays beyond the permitted time period.
- Illegal migrants may be put in jail or deported under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.
Exceptions
- The Bill 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.
Controversy with the Act
- Country of Origin: The Act classifies migrants based on their country of origin to include only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
- Other religious minorities ignored: It is unclear why illegal migrants from only six specified religious minorities have been included in the Act.
- Defiance of purpose: India shares a border with Myanmar, which has had a history of persecution of a religious minority, the Rohingya Muslims.
- Date of Entry: It is also unclear why there is a differential treatment of migrants based on their date of entry into India, i.e., whether they entered India before or after December 31, 2014.
Way forward
- India is a constitutional democracy with a basic structure that assures a secure and spacious home for all Indians.
- Being partitioned on religious grounds, India has to undertake a balancing act for protecting the religious minorities in its neighbourhood.
- These minorities are under constant threat of persecution and vandalism.
- India needs to balance the civilization duties to protect those who are prosecuted in the neighbourhood.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Constituent Assembly debates around Citizenship
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAA
Mains level: CAA debate
This newscard is an excerpt from the ‘Letter and Spirit’ section in the print edition of TH, which is a new column that will focus on explaining and understanding basic Acts and Articles enshrined in our Constitution.
Context
- With the contentious farm laws repealed, the discussions turn to the second most politically and legally resisted legislation of recent times, The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
- The citizenship question finds its retro-reflection in the Constituent Assembly debates which serve as the undeniable autobiography of India’s basic law.
Debate over CAA, yet again
- CAA asserts that only people belonging to some faiths are victims of persecution and violence and the doors of the country can be legitimately shut to any other instance of persecution and ethnic violence.
A ‘headache’ for the Drafting Committee
- The citizenship question had been one of the most difficult tasks confronted by the drafting committee as admitted by Dr B.R.Ambedkar.
- He moved a set of consolidated amendments to the citizenship provisions of the original draft.
- He said that the task had given the drafting committee “such a headache” and multiple “drafts were prepared” and “destroyed” before arriving at a consensus.
The critics
- The draft did not satisfy all but to the most due to its secular and liberal provisions.
- It was fiercely contested on the floor of the Constituent Assembly on religious, ethnic and hyper-nationalistic considerations.
- The Article 5 of the draft constitution was criticized for its lack of exclusive and preferential provisions on religious lines regarding the declaration as to who shall be the citizen of India during commencement of the Constitution.
- Then Article 5A (today’s Article 7 of the Constitution) sought to grant citizenship rights to the migrants of Pakistan who had returned to India under a permit for resettlement granted by Indian authorities.
The ‘Jus Soli’ Principle
- This principle is premised on the automatic grant of citizenship based on the place of birth provided the person is domiciled in India, qualifying it with religious identity.
- It was in fact a proposal to ingrain religion into the bedrock of the Constitution.
- Dr P.S.Deshmukh from the Central Provinces and Berar proposed changes to Article 5 of the draft by proposing to replace the universally honoured “jus soli” principle by qualifying it with a religion.
- He went on to state that every person who is a Hindu or a Sikh by religion and is not a citizen of any other State, wherever he resides shall be entitled to be a citizen of India.
Issue over indiscriminate grant of citizenship
- The concern of Dr. Deshmukh justifying the exclusion of people belonging to other religions, as echoed in his question- Is it then wise that we should throw opens our citizenship so indiscriminately?
- It found fraternal support from members who opined that Hindus and Sikhs have no other home but India.
- This finds its resonance today in the presumptive base of the CAA.
The defenders
- Some highlighted the fact of panic driven migration without certain intention to settle down in Pakistan was left unanswered with precision.
- Some retorted that mentioning the name of some communities will make other communities feel that they were being ignored.
What did Nehru opine?
- Nehru stated that we cannot have rules for Hindus, for Muslims and for Christians only.
- He stressed upon the possibility of the second wave of migration including non-Hindus and non-Sikhs who were part of the first wave influx.
- Hence, in his view, foreclosing the doors fearing the influx of some may deprive others of exercising their choice.
Ambedkar on Pakistan returnees
- Ambedkar clarified that the principal thrust of Article 5A was to declare that persons who migrated to Pakistan after 1st of March 1947 due to internal disturbances.
- He declared that some migrants from Pakistan were allowed to return on the basis of the agreements between both the Governments and on the basis of an ordinance promulgated.
Conclusion
- The Constituent Assembly debates on citizenship showed that in the rousing of sentiments of ethnicity and distrust, sagacity had an upper hand, leading to the saner denouement of toleration.
- History is known to set examples.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Over 6 lakh Indians renounced Citizenship
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Citizenship of India
Mains level: Read the attached story
More than six lakh Indians renounced citizenship in the past five years, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Lok Sabha.
Citizenship in India
- Citizenship is in the Union List under the Constitution and thus under the exclusive jurisdiction of Parliament.
- The Constitution does not define the term ‘citizen’ but gives, in Articles 5 to 11, details of various categories of persons who are entitled to citizenship.
- Unlike other provisions of the Constitution, which came into being on January 26, 1950, these articles were enforced on November 26, 1949 itself, when the Constitution was adopted.
Various provisions for Indian Citizenship
Article 5
- It provided for citizenship on the commencement of the Constitution.
- All those domiciled and born in India were given citizenship.
- Even those who were domiciled but not born in India, but either of whose parents was born in India, were considered citizens.
- Anyone who had been an ordinary resident for more than five years, too, was entitled to apply for citizenship.
Article 6
- Since Independence was preceded by Partition and migration, Article 6 laid down that anyone who migrated to India before July 19, 1949, would automatically become an Indian citizen if either of his parents or grandparents was born in India.
- But those who entered India after this date needed to register themselves.
Article 7
- Even those who had migrated to Pakistan after March 1, 1947 but subsequently returned on resettlement permits were included within the citizenship net.
- The law was more sympathetic to those who migrated from Pakistan and called them refugees than to those who, in a state of confusion, were stranded in Pakistan or went there but decided to return soon.
Article 8
- Any Person of Indian Origin residing outside India who, or either of whose parents or grandparents, was born in India could register himself or herself as an Indian citizen with Indian Diplomatic Mission.
Various Amendments for Citizenships
- According to Article 11, Parliament can go against the citizenship provisions of the Constitution.
- The Citizenship Act, 1955 was passed and has been amended four times — in 1986, 2003, 2005, and 2015.
- The Act empowers the government to determine the citizenship of persons in whose case it is in doubt.
- However, over the decades, Parliament has narrowed down the wider and universal principles of citizenship based on the fact of birth.
- Moreover, the Foreigners Act places a heavy burden on the individual to prove that he is not a foreigner.
(1) 1986 amendment
- The constitutional provision and the original Citizenship Act gave citizenship on the principle of jus soli to everyone born in India.
- However, the 1986 amendment to Section 3 was less inclusive as it added the condition that those who were born in India on or after January 26, 1950 but before July 1, 1987, shall be an Indian citizen.
- Those born after July 1, 1987 and before December 4, 2003, in addition to one’s own birth in India, can get citizenship only if either of his parents was an Indian citizen at the time of birth.
(2) 2003 amendment
- The then government made the above condition more stringent, keeping in view infiltration from Bangladesh.
- Now the law requires that for those born on or after December 4, 2004, in addition to the fact of their own birth, both parents should be Indian citizens or one parent must be Indian citizen and other should not be an illegal migrant.
- With these restrictive amendments, India has almost moved towards the narrow principle of jus sanguinis or blood relationship.
- This lay down that an illegal migrant cannot claim citizenship by naturalization or registration even if he has been a resident of India for seven years.
(3) Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019
- The amendment proposes to permit members of six communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan — to continue to live in India if they entered India before December 14, 2014.
- It also reduces the requirement for citizenship from 11 years out of the preceding 14 years, to just 6 years.
- Two notifications also exempted these migrants from the Passport Act and Foreigner Act.
- A large number of organisations in Assam protested against this Bill as it may grant citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindu illegal migrants.
Losing of Indian Citizenship
- The Citizenship Act, 1955 also lays down the three modes by which an Indian citizen may lose his/her citizenship.
- It may happen in any of the three ways: renunciation, termination and deprivation.
(1) Renunciation
- An Indian Citizen of full age and capacity can renounce his Indian citizenship by making a declaration to that effect and having it registered.
- But if such a declaration is made during any war in which India is engaged, the registration shall be withheld until the Central Government otherwise directs.
- When a male person renounces his citizenship, every minor child of him ceases to be an Indian citizen.
- Such a child may, however, resume Indian citizenship if he makes a declaration to that effect within a year of his attaining full age, i.e. 18 years.
(2) Termination
- If a citizen of India voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country, he shall cease to be a citizen of India.
- During the war period, this provision does not apply to a citizen of India, who acquires the citizenship of another country in which India may be engaged voluntarily.
(3) Deprivation
- Deprivation is a compulsory termination of citizenship of India.
- A citizen of India by naturalization, registration, domicile and residence, may be deprived of his citizenship by an order of the Central Government if it is satisfied that the Citizen has:
- Obtained the citizenship by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of any material fact
- Shown disloyalty to the Constitution of India
- Unlawfully traded or communicated with the enemy during a war
- Within five years after registration or neutralization, been imprisoned in any country for two years
- Ordinarily resident out of India for seven years continuously
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Unified Database of Birth and Death
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Unified Database of Birth and Death
Mains level: Not Much
The Centre has proposed amendments to a 1969 law that will enable it to “maintain the database of registered birth and deaths at the national level”.
Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBD), 1969
- The registration of births, deaths and stillbirths are compulsory under the provisions of RBD Act in all parts of the Country.
- The normal period of 21 days (from the date of occurrence) has been prescribed for reporting the birth, death and stillbirth events.
Why need amendment?
- The database may be used to update the Population Register and the electoral register, and Aadhaar, ration card, passport and driving licence databases after the amendment.
- Presently, the registration of births and deaths is done by the local registrar appointed by States.
What are the proposed amendments?
Ans. Unified Database of Birth and Death
- It is proposed that the Chief Registrar (appointed by the States) would maintain a unified database at the State level.
- It would then integrate it with the data at the “national level,” maintained by the Registrar General of India (RGI).
- The amendments will imply that the Centre will be a parallel repository of data.
Significance of the database
- It would help update:
- Population Register prepared under the Citizenship Act, 1955;
- Electoral registers or electoral rolls prepared under the Representation of the People Act, 1951
- Aadhaar database prepared under the Aadhaar Act, 2016;
- Ration card database prepared under the National Food Security Act, 2013;
- Passport database prepared under the Passport Act; and
- Driving licence database under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, and
- Other databases at the national level are subject to provisons of Section 17 (1) of the RBD Act, 1969
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Citizenship and Related Issues
What is National Population Register?
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Population Register
Mains level: NPR, NRC, Census
The latest form of the National Population Register (NPR) appears to have retained contentious questions such as “mother tongue, place of birth of father and mother and last place of residence”.
National Population Register
- The NPR is a Register of usual residents of the country.
- It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National level.
- This is carried under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
- It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR.
- A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more.
Why NPR is under fire?
- Though NPR was first compiled in 2010 and updated in 2015, the new questions were part of a trial exercise involving 30 lakh respondents in September 2019.
- The exercise has perceived the first step toward the compilation of the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) according to Citizenship Rules, 2003.
Questions in NPR
- In 2020 NPR, the respondent will have to specify the “name of State and district” if the place of birth of father and mother is in India and mention the country’s name if not born here.
- The form will collect details on 14 parameters of all family members.
- The sub-heads include passport number, relationship to head of the family, whether divorced/widowed or separated, mother tongue, if non-worker, cultivator, labourer, government employee, daily wage earner among others.
- The form also has a column on Aadhar, mobile phone, Voter ID and driving license number, which are to be provided if available with the respondent.
How are NRIC and NPR related?
- Out of the NPR, a set of all usual residents of India, the government proposes to create a database of “citizens of India”.
- Thus, the “National Register of Indian Citizens” (NRIC) is a sub-set of the NPR.
- The NRIC will be prepared at the local, sub-district, district and State levels after verifying the citizenship status of the residents.
- The rules say the particulars of every family and individual found in the Population Register shall be verified and scrutinized by the Local Registrar.
How NPR is different from Census?
- The census involves a detailed questionnaire — there were 29 items to be filled up in the 2011 census.
- They are aimed at eliciting the particulars of every person, including age, sex, marital status, children, occupation, birthplace, mother tongue, religion, disability and whether they belonged to any SC or ST.
- On the other hand, the NPR collects basic demographic data and biometric particulars.
- While the census is legally backed by the Census Act, 1948, the NPR is a mechanism outlined in a set of rules framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Issues with MHA notification for OCI
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Difference between OCI and NRI
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues faced by OCI
About notification
- The Home Ministry’s March 4 order that required professional Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs), such as journalists, engineers and researchers, to notify the Ministry about their activities in India.
- The notification said that OCIs shall be required to obtain a “special permission or a special permit” from the competent authority or the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) or the Indian mission “to undertake research, missionary or Tabligh or mountaineering or journalistic activities or internship in any foreign diplomatic missions
- The Ministry issued a gazette notification that OCI cardholders could claim “only NRI (Non-Resident Indian) quota seats” in educational institutions.
Issues with the notification
- This will place undue burden on scientific, pharmaceutical, medical, biotechnology and other research fields.
- Even if an OCI student has secured a high rank in an exam like NEET, several institutions of repute do not have NRI seats.
- The exorbitantly high fees under the NRI quota cannot be afforded by many OCIs as they live and work in India.
- India-domiciled OCI students are deprived of domicile status both in India [country of residence] as well as the country of their citizenship.
- The notification equates India-domiciled OCIs with a foreigner.
About OCIs
- OCIs are of Indian origin but hold foreign passports.
- India does not allow dual citizenship but provides certain benefits under Section 7B(I) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 to the OCIs.
- So far, 37.72 lakh OCI Cards are said to have been issued.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
OCI card holders no longer required to carry old passports for India travel
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PIO, OCI
Mains level: Indian Diaspora
People of Indian origin (PIO) and the Indian diaspora having Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards are now not required to carry their old, expired passports for travel to India.
UPSC can ask statement based question in prelims based on the definition and privileges of OCI card-holders.
Who is an Overseas Citizen?
- An OCI is a category introduced by the government in 2005.
- Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) of certain categories as specified in the Citizenship Act, 1955 are eligible for being OCI cardholders.
- Some of the benefits for PIO and OCI cardholders were different until 2015 when the government merged these two categories.
- The MHA defines an OCI as a person who was a citizen of India on or after January 26, 1950; or was eligible to become a citizen of India on that date; or who is a child or grandchild of such a person, among other eligibility criteria.
- According to Section 7A of the OCI card rules, an applicant is not eligible for the OCI card if he, his parents or grandparents have ever been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Privileges to an OCI
- OCI cardholders can enter India multiple times, get a multipurpose lifelong visa to visit India, and are exempt from registering with Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) no matter how long their stay.
- If an individual is registered as an OCI for a period of five years, he/she are eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.
- At all Indian international airports, OCI cardholders are provided with special immigration counters.
- OCI cardholders can open special bank accounts in India, they can buy the non-farm property and exercise ownership rights and can also apply for a driver’s license and PAN card.
- However, OCI cardholders do not get voting rights, cannot hold a government job and purchase agricultural or farmland.
- They cannot run for public office either, nor can they travel to restricted areas without government permission.
Why such a move?
- There had been inconvenience caused to members of the Indian diaspora due to certain OCI card rules as they undertook to travel to India during the pandemic.
- He said some of the passengers were not allowed to board flights to India and were sent back from airports as they were not carrying their old foreign passports, which was required as per government rules.
- The OCI card, among other benefits, allows multiple entries, multi-purpose lifelong visa to an Indian-origin foreign national to visit India.
- Under the provisions of the OCI card, which gives the cardholder a lifelong visa to India, those below 20 years and above 50 years need to renew their OCI card every time they have their passport renewed.
Back2Basics: PIO vs. OCI
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Citizenship and Related Issues
National Population Register
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Population Register
Mains level: NPR, NRC issues
The office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) has said the schedule or the questionnaire of the National Population Register (NPR) is being finalised.
The National Population Register (NPR)
- The NPR is a database containing a list of all usual residents of the country. Its objective is to have a comprehensive identity database of people residing in the country.
- It is generated through house-to-house enumeration during the “house-listing” phase of the census, which is held once in 10 years.
- The last census was in 2011, and the next will be done in 2021 (and will be conducted through a mobile phone application).
- A usual resident for the purposes of NPR is a person who has resided in a place for six months or more and intends to reside there for another six months or more
How it is different from the Census?
- The census involves a detailed questionnaire and there were 29 items to be filled up in the 2011 census.
- They aimed at eliciting the particulars of every person, including age, sex, marital status, occupation, birthplace, mother tongue, religion, whether they belonged to any SC or ST etc.
- On the other hand, NPR collects basic demographic data and biometric particulars.
- Once the basic details of the head of the family are taken by the enumerator, an acknowledgement slip will be issued. This slip may be required for enrolment in NPR, whenever that process begins.
- The details will be recorded in every local (village or ward), sub-district (tehsil or taluk), district and state level.
- Once the details are recorded, there will be a population register at each of these levels. Together, they constitute the National Population Register.
What is the legal basis for the NPR?
- While the census is legally backed by the Census Act, 1948, the NPR is a mechanism outlined in a set of rules framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- Section 14A was inserted in the Citizenship Act, 1955, in 2004, providing for the compulsory registration of every citizen of India and the issue of a “national identity card” to him or her.
- It also said the Central government may maintain a “National Register of Indian Citizens”.
- The Registrar General India shall act as the “National Registration Authority” (and will function as the Registrar General of Citizen Registration).
- Incidentally, the Registrar General is also the country’s Census Commissioner.
Attempt this question
Q.Enumerate the major points of the ‘Assam accord (1985)’. How is it associated with the present issue of the National Register of Citizens?
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Census 2021 and the long-pending reforms
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Census of India
Mains level: Need for reforms in Census and Surveying
- In all likelihood, the February 2021 Census will have to be rescheduled to ensure comparability with earlier censuses.
- This will also affect the National Sample Surveys and others that use the census as the sampling frame.
- The delay can, however, be used to introduce much-needed reforms to this gigantic exercise whose roots go back to the late 19th century.
Try this question for mains:
Q.The Census of India needs a basic overhaul beyond its procedural digitization. Critically analyse.
Background: Census of India
- The decennial Census of India has been conducted 15 times, as of 2011.
- While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881.
- Post-1949, it has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
- All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act.
- The last census was held in 2011, whilst the next will be held in 2021.
Census 2021
- The Census 2021 will be conducted in 18 languages out of the 22 scheduled languages (under 8th schedule) and English, while Census 2011 was in 16 of the 22 scheduled languages declared at that time.
- It also will introduce a code directory to streamline the process
- The option of “Other” under the gender category will be changed to “Third Gender”.
- There were roughly 5 lakh people under “other” category in 2011.
- For the first time in the 140 year history of the census in India, data is proposed to be collected through a mobile app by enumerators and they will receive an additional payment as an incentive.
- The Census data would be available by the year 2024-25 as the entire process would be conducted digitally and data crunching would be quicker.
Issues with the Census
(1) Data quality issues
- The past four decades have seen a decline in the quality of data and growing delays in its release despite technological innovations.
- The use of census data in delimitation and federal redistribution has been questioned on grounds of poor quality, while the Covid-19 pandemic revealed the obsolete and poor quality of data on internal migration.
(2) No major reforms
- The legal foundation of the census has remained largely unchanged since newly independent India enacted permanent census legislation in 1948.
- Despite sustained problems, the census has not seen any major reform after 1994 when both the Census Act, 1948 and Census Rules, 1990 were amended.
(3) Old methods and questionnaire
- The methodological core – extended de facto (synchronous) canvasser-based enumeration – too has remained intact even though the length and layout of schedules changed quite a bit.
- The Household Schedule, for instance, grew with the footprint of the state, from 14 questions in 1951 to 29 questions in 2011.
(4) Workforce issues
- Data collection has not kept pace with improvements in data processing technology due to the lack of motivated and adequately trained enumerators.
- Given the high salaries of school teachers, the modest honorarium paid for census work does not cover the opportunity cost of conducting the door-to-door enumeration.
Understand the ‘purpose’ of the census
Reforms should begin with the design of schedules based on a clear understanding of two essential functions of the census:
(a) Resource allocations
- First, census facilitates the rule-based distribution of power and resources through constitutionally mandated redistribution of taxes, delimitation of electoral constituencies and affirmative action policies.
- It is also used in routine policy-making across tiers of government.
(b) Population projections
- Second, census serves as the sampling frame for surveys and is also the basis of population projections.
- Other routine policies require distribution of the headcount by households, marital status, age, sex, literacy, migrant status, and mother tongue.
- Put together, these variables are sufficient for choosing representative samples for surveys.
What can be done?
1.Cut the questions
- Nearly half of the ‘Houselisting and Housing Schedule’ of the census is devoted to questions on household amenities and assets.
- These questions can be dropped because the information can be more appropriately collected through sample surveys and administrative statistics.
Why put fewer questions?
- Cutting down the length of unwieldy schedules has several advantages.
- First, it will improve data quality by reducing the workload of enumerators.
- Second, it will also free up senior census officials and help revive the earlier tradition of producing detailed administrative and other reports crucial for understanding the context of data.
- Third, shorter schedules will seem less invasive and assure respondents uncomfortable with sharing too many details.
- Fourth, it will cut down processing time and help in reducing delays in the release of data.
2.Dealing with data manipulation
- There is poor accounting of migrants that distorts estimates of urbanisation as well as the inter-state distribution of the population.
- There exists grassroots manipulation of data-driven by political and economic considerations.
- There is a need to demystify census operations and build trust in the impartiality of the exercise, better scrutiny of electoral records and welfare schemes to weed out bogus beneficiaries.
Conclusion
- These reforms are essential to ensure that the census exercise is able to fulfil its constitutional, policy and statistical obligations and also clear the ground for debates on the future of census in the digital era.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Clause 6 of the Assam Accord
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Assam Accord
Mains level: NRC and CAA debate
In February, a government-appointed committee had submitted its recommendations for implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, a key provision that has been contentious for decades.
Must read:
What is Clause 6?
- It is a part of the Assam Accord which came at the culmination of a movement against immigration from Bangladesh.
- It reads: “Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.”
- For recognition as citizens, the Accord sets March 24, 1971, as the cutoff.
- As immigrants up to the cutoff date would get all rights as Indian citizens, so Clause 6 was inserted to safeguard the socio-political rights and culture of the “indigenous people of Assam”.
What has happened since?
- Several committees have been set up over the years to make recommendations on the implementation of Clause 6.
- None of them made headway on the provision’s contentious issues, however, until the latest CAA move.
- Following widespread protests against the CAA, the government gave an urgent push to Clause 6 to pacify the Assamese community.
Recommendations of the recent report
- Headed by retired High Court judge Biplab Kumar Sarma the committee was asked to fast-track its report.
- It submitted its report in Feb but the government did not make its contents public.
- But some Assamese activists independently made the contents public.
- Its brief was to define the “Assamese people” and suggest measures for the safeguard of their rights. The definition of “Assamese people” has been a subject of discussion for decades.
Key propositions
The committee has proposed that the following be considered Assamese people for the purpose of Clause 6. All citizens of India who are part of:
- Assamese community, residing in the Territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; or
- Any indigenous tribal community of Assam residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; or
- Any other indigenous community of Assam residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; or
- All other citizens of India residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; and
- Descendants of the above categories
Why 1951?
- During the Assam agitation, the demand was for detection and deportation of migrants who had illegally entered Assam after 1951.
- The Assam Accord, however, set the cutoff on March 24, 1971. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) was updated based on this cutoff.
- Clause 6 is meant to give the Assamese people certain safeguards, which would not be available to migrants between 1951 and 1971.
- If the recommendation is accepted, those who migrated between 1951 and 1971 would be Indian citizens, but they won’t be eligible for safeguards meant for Assamese people”.
What are these safeguards?
Among various recommendations, the key is the reservation of seats in Parliament, Assembly and local bodies; reservation in jobs; and land rights. The panel recommends the Assamese people be given:
- 80 to 100% reservation in the parliamentary seats of Assam, Assembly seats and local body seats be reserved for the “Assamese people”.
- 80 to 100% of Group C and D level posts (in Assam) in central government/semi-central government/central PSUs/private sector
- 80 to 100% of jobs under Government of Assam and state government undertakings; and 70 to 100% of vacancies arising in private partnerships
- Land rights, with restrictions imposed on transferring land by any means to persons other than “Assamese people”.
Several other recommendations deal with language and cultural and social rights. On language, it recommends:
- Assamese language shall continue to be official language throughout the state with provisions for use of local languages in Barak Valley, Hill Districts and the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts.
- Mandatory provision of an Assamese language paper for recruitment in state government services with alternatives for Barak Valley districts, BTAD and Hills Districts.
- To set up Academies for all-round development of each of the indigenous tribal languages including, Bodo, Mishing, Karbi, Dimasa, Koch-Rajbongshi, Rabha, Deuri, Tiwa, Tai and other indigenous languages.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Article 1 of the Indian Constitution
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various articles mentioned in the newsward
Mains level: Part I of the Indian Constitution
The Supreme Court has ordered that a plea to change India’s name exclusively to ‘Bharat’ be converted into a representation and forwarded to the Union government for an appropriate decision.
Note:
Whenever such articles are in news, make sure to revise entire Part. Like in this case Part I – Articles 1, 2, 3 and 4. See the B2b section.
What is the issue?
- The petition seeks an amendment to Article 1 of the Constitution, which says “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States…”
- It wants ‘India’ to be struck off from the Article.
Article 1 of the Constitution
- Article 1 in the Constitution states that India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.
- The territory of India shall consist of: The territories of the states, The Union territories and Any territory that may be acquired in future.
The names of the States and the Unions have been described in the First Schedule. This schedule also holds that there are four Categories of State and territories – Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D.
- Part A – includes the nine provinces which were under British India
- Part B – princely states consisted of this category
- Part C – centrally administered five states
- Part D – Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Abolishing of these schedules
- In the seventh amendment of the Constitution in 1956, the distinction between Part A and Part B states was abolished.
- Subsequently, states were reorganized on a linguistic basis.
- As a result, several new states were formed, eg. Haryana, Goa, Nagaland, Mizoram etc. At present, there are 28 States and 8 UTs (corrected).
Debate over name change
- Bharat and India are both names given in the Constitution. India is already called ‘Bharat’ in the Constitution”.
- The petition says that India is a name of foreign origin. The name can be traced back to the Greek term ‘Indica’.
- The word ‘Bharat’ is closely associated with our Freedom Struggle as the cry was ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.
- Chauvinists argue that the name change will ensure citizens to get over the colonial past and instil a sense of pride in our nationality.
What 2016 ruling has to say?
- The apex court had dismissed a similar petition in 2016.
- Then CJI T.S. Thakur orally remarked that every Indian had the right to choose between calling his country ‘Bharat’ or ‘India’.
- CJI said that the Supreme Court had no business to either dictate or decide for a citizen what he should call his country.
Back2Basics
Article 2
- Article 2 states that the parliament may, by law, admit new states into the Union of India or establish new states on terms and conditions it deems fit.
- For e.g. the addition of the State of Sikkim by the 35th (1974) and 36th (1975) constitutional amendments.
Article 3
- Article 3 empowers the parliament to form a new state by separation of a part of the territory of an established state or to unite two or more states or parts of states or by uniting any territory to a part of any state.
- This article provides that area of any state can reduced or increased and alter the boundaries or change the name of a state.
- Even though the state boundaries are subject to change, their area cannot be acquired by a foreign state.
- There is also a saving clause in the article to protect the rights of the state.
- The first condition is that no bill for the purpose can be introduced in either house except on the recommendation of the President of India.
- Second, whether the proposal contains the alternation of the area, boundaries or name of the state mentioned, it has to refer by President to the Legislatures of concerned states, for expressing opinions.
- Such opinion has to be expressed within a period specified by the President. In any case, the views expressed do not bind the decisions of either the President or the Parliament
Article 4
- This article specifies that the laws provided in article 2 and 3, admission/establishment of new states and alteration of names, areas and boundaries etc. of established states, are not to be considered amendments of the Constitution under article 368.
- It means these can be passed without resorting to any special procedure and by a simple majority.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
What is Inner Line Permit (ILP) and what is its CAA context?
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ILP, NRC, CAA
Mains level: Debate over CAA
The Supreme Court has declined to stay the operation of a Presidential order which petitioners claimed deprived Assam of the powers to implement the Inner Line system in its districts and limit the applicability of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Try this:
Q. The NRC fails to resolve the illegal immigration issue in Assam. Critically Analyse.
In light of the ongoing pandemic, the fumes of protests over NRC/CAA have somewhat vanished. However, one must not forget the fundamental linkages between the NPR/NRC/CAA/ILP etc.
The Inner Line
- A concept drawn by colonial rulers, the Inner Line separated the tribal-populated hill areas in the Northeast from the plains.
- To enter and stay for any period in these areas, Indian citizens from other areas need an Inner Line Permit (ILP).
- Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram are protected by the Inner Line, and lately, Manipur was added.
- The concept originates from the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act (BEFR), 1873.
Its inception
- The policy of exclusion first came about as a response to the reckless expansion of British entrepreneurs into new lands which threatened British political relations with the hill tribes.
- The BEFR prohibits an outsider’s — “British subject or foreign citizen” — entry into the are beyond the Inner Line without a pass and his purchase of land there.
- On the other hand, the Inner Line also protects the commercial interests of the British from the tribal communities.
- After Independence, the Indian government replaced “British subjects” with “Citizen of India”.
- Today, the main aim of the ILP system is to prevent settlement of other Indian nationals in the States where the ILP regime is prevalent, in order to protect the indigenous/tribal population.
How is it connected to the Citizenship Amendment Act?
- The CAA, which relaxes eligibility criteria for certain categories of migrants from three countries seeking Indian citizenship, exempts certain categories of areas, including those protected by the Inner Line system.
- Amid protests against the Act, the Adaptation of Laws (Amendment) Order, 2019, issued by the President, amended the BEFR, 1873, extending it to Manipur and parts of Nagaland that were not earlier protected by ILP.
What is the petition now?
- The petition was against the Presidential order. It said the order took away the Assam government’s permissive power to implement the ILP.
- This could have made the CAA inapplicable in these areas, the petition said.
- The CAA has given fresh legs to the demand.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) Visa Issue
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: OCI, PIO
Mains level: Citizenship related issues of Indian Diaspora
In a bid to allay fears of the OCI cardholders over the temporary suspension of their long-term visas, the Ministry for External Affairs has said the government will soon take an appropriate decision.
UPSC may ask a statement based question in prelims considering various privileges of the OCI cardholders.
What is the issue?
- A large number of Indian citizens whose children are OCI cardholders and several people of Indian-origin having the card are unable to travel to India, even for emergency reasons, because of the temporary suspension of their long-term visa.
Who is an Overseas Citizen?
- An OCI is a category introduced by the government in 2005.
- Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) of certain categories as specified in the Citizenship Act, 1955 are eligible for being OCI cardholders.
- Some of the benefits for PIO and OCI cardholders were different until 2015 when the government merged these two categories.
- The MHA defines an OCI as a person who was a citizen of India on or after January 26, 1950; or was eligible to become a citizen of India on that date; or who is a child or grandchild of such a person, among other eligibility criteria.
- According to Section 7A of the OCI card rules, an applicant is not eligible for the OCI card if he, his parents or grandparents have ever been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Privileges to an OCI
- OCI cardholders can enter India multiple times, get a multipurpose lifelong visa to visit India, and are exempt from registering with Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) no matter how long their stay.
- If an individual is registered as an OCI for a period of five years, he/she are eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.
- At all Indian international airports, OCI cardholders are provided with special immigration counters.
- OCI cardholders can open special bank accounts in India, they can buy the non-farm property and exercise ownership rights and can also apply for a driver’s license and PAN card.
- However, OCI cardholders do not get voting rights, cannot hold a government job and purchase agricultural or farmland.
- They cannot run for public office either, nor can they travel to restricted areas without government permission.
Back2Basics
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Defining Anti-national Activities
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various FRs not available to Foreigners
Mains level: Read the attached story
Ever since the anti-CAA protests erupted across the country, the MHA has been quite active in filtering out foreigners among the protesters and serving them with ‘Leave India’ notices’.
What contributes to ‘Anti-government’ activities?
- According to visa guidelines laid out by the MHA, Foreign nationals shall be required to strictly adhere to the purpose of visit declared while submitting the visa application.
- However, a foreign national (other than a Pakistani national) coming to India on any type of visa will be allowed to avail activities permitted under tourist visa.
- However, there are no provisions specified under “anti-government” activities subhead.
- The absence of any such provision in visa laws or Foreigner’s Act makes it necessary for the government to define “anti-government” activities under a statute.
- Visa laws are not in any derogation with any other law, so inferences can be drawn — which means a court can rule that whatever are defined as “anti-government” activities for Indian national is “anti-government” for foreign national too.”
What do ‘anti-government’ activities mean for an Indian national?
- According to the lawyers, anti-government activities are those which are listed as punishable under Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code.
- Section 124A IPC deals with attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law in India.
- Such offences shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which a fine may be added; or, with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which a fine may be added; or, with fine.
Does a foreigner on Indian visa have a right to protest?
- Right to protest peacefully is enshrined under Article 19(1)(a) of Indian Constitution which guarantees the freedom of speech and expression.
- Article (19)(b) guarantees the citizens of the country the right to assemble peacefully and without arms.
- Since Article 14 of the Constitution ensures equality to any person before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India, foreigners also have the right to protest peacefully, argue proponents.
- However, the act done by the foreigner must not be anything in contravention to the existing laws of India.
- Being a part of a peaceful protest isn’t illegal and thus, being a part of it isn’t anything wrong even if that is against the Indian government, critic says.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Rights, duties and the Constitution
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Conflating duties and rights and its consequences.
Context
At an International Judicial Conference 2020 this weekend, the Chief Justice of India, S.A. Bobde, drew attention to the Constitution’s Fundamental Duties chapter.
The logic of duties
- Wide range of duties: The first thing to note is that as citizens, there exists a wide range of duties that bind us in everyday life.
- Duties towards the state and individual: These duties are owed both to the state and to other individuals.
- Legal duties: We have a legal duty to pay our taxes, to refrain from committing violence against our fellow-citizens, and to follow other laws that Parliament has enacted.
- Breach of these legal duties triggers financial consequences (fines), or even time in jail.
- Following the duties is price for living in the society: At any given time, therefore, we are already following a host of duties, which guide and constrain how we may behave.
- This is the price that must be paid for living in society, and it is a price that nobody, at least, in principle, objects to paying.
- Self-contained whole: Our duties and the consequences we bear for failing to keep them, therefore, exist as a self-contained whole.
- Co-existence and sacrifice: The peaceful co-existence requires a degree of self-sacrifice, and that if necessary, this must be enforced through the set of sanctions.
The logic of rights
- Understanding the logic through history: Rights, on the other hand, follow a different logic entirely. This is a logic that is best understood through history.
- Two concerns: At the time of the framing of the Indian Constitution and its chapter on Fundamental Rights, there were two important concerns animating the Constituent Assembly.
- Treatment as subjects: The first was that under the colonial regime, Indians had been treated as subjects.
- Their interests did not count, their voices were unheard, and in some cases — for example, the “Criminal Tribes”- they were treated as less than human.
- Holocaust example: Apart from the long and brutal history of colonialism, the framers also had before them the recent example of the Holocaust, where the dignity of more than six million people had been stripped before their eventual genocide.
- The first role of fundamental rights chapter: To stand as a bulwark against dehumanisation.
- Dignity and equality guaranteed: Every human being no matter who they were or what they did had a claim to basic dignity and equality that no state could take away, no matter what the provocation.
- Unconditional right: One did not have to successfully perform any duty, or meet a threshold of worthiness, to qualify as a rights bearer. It was simply what it meant to be human.
- Second role of the fundamental rights: To stand against the hierarchy.
- Removing the subordination and degradation: The axes of gender, caste and religion had all served to keep masses of individuals in permanent conditions of subordination and degradation.
- Equalising and democratising: Through guarantees against-
- Forced labour.
- Against “untouchability”.
- Against discriminatory access to public spaces, and others.
- Fundamental rights were meant to play an equalising and democratising role throughout society, and to protect individuals against the depredations visited on them by their fellow human beings.
- Significance of the above two roles
- Transformative purpose: The twin principles of anti-dehumanisation and anti-hierarchy reveal the transformative purpose of the fundamental rights chapter.
- The recognition that true democracy could not exist without ensuring that at a basic level, the dignity and equality of individuals were protected, both from the state as well as from social majorities.
- Rise from subject to citizen: It was only with these guarantees could an individual rise from the status of subject to that of the citizen.
- And, as should be clear by now, it was only after that transformation had been wrought, that the question of duties could even arise.
- Importance of the language of the duty:
- The language of duties can play an important role in a society that continues to be divided and unequal.
- In such a society, those who possess or benefit from entrenched structural and institutional power (starting with the state, and going downwards) certainly have a “duty” not to use that power to the detriment of those upon whom they wield it.
- That is precisely what the guarantees against “untouchability”, forced labour, and discriminatory access in the Constitution seek to accomplish.
Issue of conflating duties and rights
- The problem lies in the conflation of rights and duties.
- In that context, it is always critical to remember Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s words in the Constituent Assembly (which were also cited by the CJI in his speech): that the fundamental unit of the Constitution remains the individual.
- If the position of the individual and the Constitution’s commitment to combating hierarchy is kept in mind, then the language of duties can be understood in its proper context.
- Chances of duties leading to unpleasant consequences: Without the moral compass of rights and their place in the transformative Constitutional scheme the language of duties can lead to unpleasant consequences.
- It can end up entrenching existing power structures by placing the burden of “duties” upon those that are already vulnerable and marginalised.
- The constitution is about rights: It is for this reason that, at the end of the day, the Constitution, a charter of liberation, is fundamentally about rights.
Conclusion
It is only after guarantee to all the full sum of humanity, dignity, equality, and freedom promised by the Constitution, that we can ask of them to do their duty. Perhaps, then, it is time to update Hind Swaraj for the constitutional age: “real duties are the result of the fulfilment of rights”.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Enemy Property in India
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Enemy Property in India
Mains level: Disposal of such Enemy Property
- A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister will monitor the disposal of over 9,400 enemy properties, which the government estimates is worth about Rs 1 lakh crore.
- Two committees headed by senior officials will be set up for the disposal of immovable enemy properties vested in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India under The Enemy Property Act.
What is “Enemy Property”?
- In the wake of the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, there was migration of people from India to Pakistan.
- Under the Defence of India Rules framed under The Defence of India Act, 1962, the Government of India took over the properties and companies of those who took Pakistani nationality.
- These “enemy properties” were vested by the central government in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.
- The same was done for property left behind by those who went to China after the 1962 Sino-Indian war.
- The Tashkent Declaration of January 10, 1966 included a clause that said India and Pakistan would discuss the return of the property and assets taken over by either side in connection with the conflict.
- However, the Government of Pakistan disposed of all such properties in their country in the year 1971 itself.
How did India deal with enemy property?
- The Enemy Property Act, enacted in 1968, provided for the continuous vesting of enemy property in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.
- The central government, through the Custodian, is in possession of enemy properties spread across many states in the country.
- Some movable properties too, are categorised as enemy properties.
- In 2017, Parliament passed The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, which amended The Enemy Property Act, 1968, and The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.
Who is an Enemy?
- The amended Act expanded the definition of the term “enemy subject”, and “enemy firm” to include the legal heir and successor of an enemy, whether a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy; and the succeeding firm of an enemy firm, irrespective of the nationality of its members or partners.
- The amended law provided that enemy property shall continue to vest in the Custodian even if the enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm ceases to be an enemy due to death, extinction, winding up of business or change of nationality, or that the legal heir or successor is a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy.
- The Custodian, with prior approval of the central government, may dispose of enemy properties vested in him in accordance with the provisions of the Act, and the government may issue directions to the Custodian for this purpose.
Why were these amendments brought?
- The thrust of the amendments was to guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people who migrated to Pakistan and China after the wars.
- The amendments denied legal heirs any right over enemy property. The main aim was to negate the effect of a court judgment in this regard.
What did these court orders say?
- One major judgment was passed in the case of the estate of the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad, who owned several large properties in Hazratganj, Sitapur and Nainital.
- Following Partition, the Raja left for Iraq and stayed there for some years before settling in London.
- After The Enemy Property Act was enacted in the year 1968, the Raja’s estate was declared enemy property. When the Raja died, his son who stayed in India staked claim to the properties.
- After a legal battle that lasted over 30 years, an apex court Bench on October 21, 2005, ruled in favour of the son.
- The verdict opened the floodgates for further pleas in courts across the country in which genuine or purported relatives of persons who had migrated to Pakistan produced deeds of gift claiming they were the rightful owners of enemy properties.
- On July 2, 2010, the then UPA government promulgated an Ordinance that restrained courts from ordering the government to divest enemy properties from the Custodian.
- The 2005 SC order was thus rendered ineffective, and the Custodian again took over the Raja’s properties.
Enactment of the Amended Law
- A Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on July 22, 2010, and subsequently, a revised Bill was tabled on November 15, 2010. This Bill was thereafter referred to the Standing Committee.
- However, the said Bill could not be passed during the term of the 15th Lok Sabha, and it lapsed.
- On January 7, 2016, the President of India promulgated The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 2016, which was replaced by the Bill that became law in 2017.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Indian Origin Tamils and Sri Lanka’s Citizenship Law
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IOT
Mains level: Citizenship issues of Indian origin Tamils in Sri Lanka
Recently an MHA spokesperson wrote on Twitter that about 4.61 lakh Tamils of Indian origin were given Indian citizenship during 1964-2008. The reference was to the Indian Origin Tamils (IOTs) of Sri Lanka, and the Lal Bahadur Shastri-Sirimavo Bandaranaike Pact of 1964.
The Indian Origin Tamils
- Different from Sri Lankan Tamils who live predominantly in the North and East, the IoTs are descendants of indentured Tamil workers.
- The British had shipped them to the island in the mid 19th century to work on tea estates in the five hill districts of the Central and Uva provinces.
- These people now call themselves Malayaha (hill country) Tamils — because of the historical stigma attached to being “Indian” Tamils.
- At the time of Sri Lanka’s independence, the IOTs numbered around 800,000.
- They were the backbone of the tea industry, politically active, and keen to ensure their rights in independent Sri Lanka through strategic alliances with unions and left parties.
- Determined to blunt their political rights, the ruling parties described IOTs as “birds of passage” with no loyalty to the country, as India’s fifth column in Sri Lanka, and as people who stole the locals’ jobs.
SL’s 1948 Citizenship Act
- Sri Lanka’s Nov. 1948 Citizenship Act was the first in a series of divisive moves by the Sinhala rulers to consolidate their political base in the majority Sinhalese (Buddhist and Christian) community.
- It was aimed at excluding IOTs — then as now, the predominant workforce in the upcountry tea estates — whose numbers and growing association with leftist parties were proving to be politically inconvenient.
- The IOTs that India accepted through the 1964 agreement were not “fleeing” Sri Lanka.
- Most were, in fact, reluctant to leave the country in which they had lived for three generations or longer.
- Those that remained, were stateless in Sri Lanka for decades until their status as citizens was settled ironically because the ruling party now wanted their votes.
What did the Act provide?
- Under the Act, citizenship could be only by patrilineal descent or registration.
- For citizenship by registration, umarried persons had to show 10 years of uninterrupted stay in Sri Lanka from the date of application; married persons had to show 7 years.
- Most IOTs were unlettered and poor, with no documents. Effectively an entire community was rendered stateless.
- Soon afterward came the Indian & Pakistani Residents’ Act of 1949, which opened a window for those above a certain income level.
- Only 1,40,000 had been granted citizenship under the Indian & Pakistani Residents’ Act, and 2,50,000 were accepted by India as its citizens.
- Finally, the 1949 Ceylon (Parliamentary Elections) Amendment was passed, under which only citizens could vote.
- The IOTs were stripped of voting rights, and the fallout was immediate: in 1947, there were 7 Indian Tamils in the legislature; in 1952, there were none.
Issues with the Act
- This Act sharply delineated ethnic differences, and distorted the political system to weight it in favour the Sinhalese majority.
- This created an intractable dynamic of ethnic outbidding between the two major Sinhalese-dominated parties to attract Sinhalese voters at the expense of the Sri Lankan Tamil minority.
- This directly contributed to the latter’s alienation, support for secessionism, and the outbreak of ethnic violence and civil war in the 1970s and 1980s.
India’s response
- The treatment of Indian Tamils had cast a shadow on India-Sri Lanka relations even before independence; post-independence, the citizenship laws became a major irritant.
- They were denounced in India, and the Madras legislature passed a resolution against them.
- In 1947, PM Nehru had tried unsuccessfully to persuade Senanayake to give citizenship to all Indian Tamils who had lived in the country for 7 years prior to January 1, 1948.
- The two countries corresponded on this issue until Nehru’s death in 1964.
- Nehru rejected the Sri Lankan position that the “stateless” IOTs were automatically Indian citizens, and would have to be shipped to India.
Repatriation of IOTs
- After the 1962 war with China, PM Shastri was eager to mend fences with Sri Lanka. He gave in to Bandaranaike’s demands, and it was agreed that Sri Lanka would accept 3,00,000 IOTs and their natural increase, while India would accept 5,25,000 IOTs and their natural increase.
- The status of the balance 1,50,000 IOTs was to be decided later.
- Some 4,00,000 reluctantly applied for citizenship of India; 6,30,000 applied for Sri Lanka’s.
- By the time the window agreed upon in 1964 closed, only 1,62,000 IOTs had been given Sri Lankan citizenship. In the same period, India gave citizenship to over 3,50,000.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Explained: Article 131, on which Kerala has based its challenge to the CAA
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Art. 131, 32, 226
Mains level: Original Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and High Courts
- The Kerala government moved the Supreme Court against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act becoming the first state to challenge the law.
- It filed a petition under Article 131 of the Constitution and asked for the law to be declared unconstitutional and in violation of Articles 14 (equality before law), 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) and 25 (freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion).
What is Article 131 of the Constitution?
- The Article vests the Supreme Court with original jurisdiction over disputes occurring between states or between states and the Centre.
- The original jurisdiction of a court means the power to hear a case for the first time, as opposed to appellate jurisdiction, in which the court reviews the decision of a lower court.
- Unlike the original jurisdiction under Article 32 (which gives the top court the power to issue writs, etc.), the jurisdiction in Article 131 is exclusive, meaning it is only the Supreme Court which has this authority.
- Under Article 226, the High Courts too have the power to issue writs, directions etc.
Original jurisdiction
- Article 131 reads, “Original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. — Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Supreme Court shall, to the exclusion of any other court, have original jurisdiction in any dispute —
(a) between the Government of India and one or more States; or
(b) between the Government of India and any State or States on one side and one or more other States on the other; or
(c) between two or more States,
if and in so far as the dispute involves any question (whether of law or fact) on which the existence or extent of a legal right depends:
- The said jurisdiction shall not extend to a dispute arising out of any treaty, agreement, covenant, engagement, sanad, or other similar instrument which, having been entered into or executed before the commencement of this Constitution.
- However they continue in operation after such commencement, or which provides, that the said jurisdiction shall not extend to such a dispute.
What kinds of disputes are covered under Article 131?
- In ‘State of Rajasthan vs Union of India’, 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that the existence or extent of a legal right is a precursor before a suit under Article 131 is entertained. But mere wrangles between governments have no place in the scheme of that Article.
- Similarly, in the 1978 case, ‘State of Karnataka vs Union of India’, which involved the Centre’s authority to order an inquiry into a state Chief Minister’s conduct, jurisdiction under Article 131 was held valid.
- In the present case filed by Kerala, central legislation (CAA) is being challenged. In 2011, a two-judge Supreme Court Bench in ‘Madhya Pradesh v Union of India’ had held such a suit was not maintainable.
- Later in 2013, another two-judge Bench in ‘State of Jharkhand v State of Bihar and Another’ disagreed with the previous verdict and referred the matter to a larger Bench. Kerala’s plaint relies on the 2013 verdict.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
Explained: Doctrine of ‘Presumption of Constitutionality’
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Doctrine of ‘Presumption of Constitutionality’
Mains level: Read the attached story
Recently the Supreme Court declined urgent hearing on a plea seeking to declare the CAA as constitutional and said that there was already a “presumption of constitutionality” to a law passed by Parliament. CJI has said that the court’s role was to examine the validity, and not declare a law constitutional.
Doctrine of Presumption of Constitutionality
- The term ‘presumption of constitutionality’ is a legal principle that is used by courts during statutory interpretation — the process by which courts interpret and apply a law passed by the legislature, such as Parliament.
- In the 1992 Supreme Court case ‘ML Kamra v New India Assurance’, Justice K Ramaswamy said: “The court ought not to interpret the statutory provisions, unless compelled by their language, in such a manner as would involve its unconstitutionality.
- The legislature of the rule making authority is presumed to enact a law which does not contravene or violate the constitutional provisions.
- Therefore, there is a presumption in favour of constitutionality of a legislation or statutory rule unless ex facie it violates the fundamental rights guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution.
- If the provisions of a law or the rule is construed in such a way as would make it consistent with the Constitution and another interpretation would render the provision or the rule unconstitutional, the Court would lean in favour of the former construction. ” (“ex facie” meaning ‘on the face’)
When does this apply?
- It is a cardinal principle of construction that the Statute and the Rule or the Regulation must be held to be constitutionally valid unless and until it is established they violate any specific provision of the Constitution.
- Further it is the duty of the Court to harmoniously construe different provisions of any Act or Rule or Regulation, if possible, and to sustain the same rather than striking down the provisions out right.
- The presumption is not absolute, however, and does not stand when there is a gross violation of the Constitution.
Limitations to the doctrine
- A three-judge Bench in ‘NDMC v State of Punjab’ (1996) spoke of the limitations to the doctrine.
- The Bench observed that the Doctrine is not one of infinite application; it has recognised limitations.
- The Court has consistently followed a policy of not putting an unnatural and forced meaning on the words that have been used by the legislature in the search for an interpretation which would save the statutory provisions.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
[op-ed snap] The Indian Constitution’s unitary tilt
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-The Constitution in favour of strong Centre
Context
The Centre-State conflict over CAA, and the Constitutional obligation on the state to implement the laws made by the Parliament, has once again brought to the fore the fault lines in the Indian federalism.
The opposition of the States to the Central law
- Several state governments have declared that they would not implement the CAA.
- Legislative Assembly of Kerala passed the resolution stating that the law contradicts the basic values.
- The resolution is only symbolic.
- Passage of such a resolution is not constitutionally barred.
- But it may not be in tune with the federal scheme under the Constitution.
What are the obligations on the States?
- Article 256 obligates the State governments to ensure the implementation of the laws made by Parliament.
- The Centre may give such direction as may appear to be necessary to ensure compliance with the laws made by Parliament.
- The refusal to enforce the law even after the Centre issues direction would empower the President to impose the President’s Rule in the State.
- Neither the refusal to implement not the official protests registered by the States carry much legal force.
- The Calcutta High Court directed the state government to remove anti-CAA advertisements from the website.
- The High Court barred the state from campaigning against a parliamentary law.
The diminishing role of the Opposition
- The parliament has been reduced to a site for procedural formalities.
- There is a poor understanding of the role of the parliamentary Opposition in Indian politics.
- Once the elections are over the Opposition is expected not to meddle in the governance.
- The absence of Leader of Opposition in the Parliament for the last 6 years manifests this attitude.
- Further, in the absence of the Opposition showing any resilience, national politics seems to be operating without a credible political check.
The unitary tilt of the Constitution
- Single-party dominance at the Centre has always revealed the tendency of our Constitution to concentrate the power.
- The concentration of power is embedded in the very structure of the Constitution.
- A ‘centrist bias’ of the Constitution further augments the power of single-party dominance.
- Against the backdrop of the fissiparous tendencies in the backdrop of partition, it was justified for the founders to be hesitant in favour of stronger federalism.
The rise of Electoral federalism
- Change in voting patterns.
- Over the last couple of years, there is huge vote swings between national and State elections in the same constituencies and separated by only a few months.
- In other words, federalism is not a mere legal division of power, the democracy and voters too are becoming federal.
- This embrace of electoral federalism may be one of the most significant achievements of Indian democracy.
- Hence, parties that lose in national elections can still win State elections and form governments.
- The State governments are thus filling the opposition deficit at the Centre.
- This shift of opposition from Delhi to State capitals is likely to become the politics over federalism.
Conclusion
- The conflict that CAA triggered might become a template for future contestations over the federal question, while the politics seem to be ripe for the advancement of federalism.
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Citizenship and Related Issues
[op-ed snap]Secularism’s Brexit moment
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 1-Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism and secularism.
Context
In India, the debate on the issue of secularism needs to be based on a more principled and practical basis.
Change in public discourse
- Popular skepticism of secularism has been growing these days.
- Secularism is being increasingly discounted not only by the hardliners but also by the moderate middle.
- It is no longer taboo to raise questions that were formerly the preserve of the fringe.
- Today, democracy is taken for granted by all the Indians. No one raises questions over its utility.
- Secularism need to be elevated to the same level as is the democracy today, where no one raises the question on its utility.
What are the issues with the defenders of secularism?
- Rather than make case for secularism, its champions indulge in name-calling and citing the example from the past to tarnish and shut down critics.
- They also cite the Constitution in their support-without realising that it is this very document’s secular thrust that has became suspect.
- They also assume the obvious correctness of their cosmopolitan worldview.
What changes need to be made?
- They must make a case for secularism anew-principled and practical.
- On principled basis-individual equality, freedom of conscience and personal habits.
- On a practical basis-no country can flourish by degrading their minority.
- They must stress the India’s plurality and “live and let live” culture, syncretic traditions and long history of respect and accommodation of differences.
- They also need to show some humility.
- They also have to show openness to fair-minded criticism.
Conclusion
These suggestions are urgently needed to be followed by those arguing in the defence of secularism otherwise there is a very real possibility of a large section of a society losing faith in secularism. In this anxious hours India needs to engage in open and self-critical debate-rather than polarising polemic.
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- What is citizenship?
- What does constitution say about citizenship?
- Special rights enjoyed by citizens
- Legislations in this regard
- Termination of citizenship
- What are OCI and PIO?
- Merger of OCI and PIO
- Other changes to citizenship provisions
- Legislation to give citizenship to minorities
- Bill to amend citizenship act, 1955
What is citizenship?
Citizenship is the status of a person recognized under the custom or law as being a member of a country. A person may have multiple citizenships and a person who does not have citizenship of any state is said to be stateless.
What does constitution say about citizenship?
The provisions of citizenship are covered by Articles 5 to 11 and are embodied in Part II of the Constitution.
- Article 5 refers to citizenship not in any general sense but to citizenship on the date of the commencement of the Constitution.
- Articles 6 and 7 deal with two categories of persons, namely, those who were residents in India but had migrated to Pakistan and those who were residents in Pakistan but migrated to India.
- Article 8 deals with Rights of citizenship of certain persons of Indian origin residing outside India
- Under Article 9 of the Constitution, and person who voluntarily acquires the citizenship of any foreign State, even if qualified for Indian citizenship under any provision of the Constitution, may not be a citizen of India.
- Article 10 says that every person who is or is deemed to be a citizen of India under any of the foregoing provisions of this Part shall, subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by Parliament, continue to be such citizen.
- Article 11 deals with power of Parliament to regulate the right of citizenship by law and states that nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.
Special rights enjoyed by citizens
Fundamental Rights provided in Indian constitution are available to citizens of India only; some of the fundamental rights which are not enjoyed by a non-citizen of India are:
- Right to be discriminated on the basis of religion, race, sex, cast or birth of place
- Equal opportunities in public employment
- Right of six democratic freedoms (Article 19) + Cultural & educational rights
Only citizens of India have the right:
- To hold civil office
- Right to vote
- Right to be judges of courts
Again, citizens alone have the right to hold certain high offices such as those of the President, Vice-President, Governor of a State, Judge of Supreme Court and High Courts, Attorney General, etc. the right to vote to elect a member of the Lok Sabha and a Vidhan Sabha and the right to become a Member of the Parliament and a State Legislature are reserved for citizens only.
Legislations in this regard
The legislation related to this matter is the Citizenship Act 1955, which has been amended by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 1986, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 1992, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003, and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2005.
- Acquisition of Indian Citizenship as per Citizenship Act 1955: Indian Citizenship can be acquired under the following ways:
- Citizenship at the commencement of the constitution of India
- Citizenship by birth
- Citizenship by descent
- Citizenship by registration
- Citizenship by naturalization.
Termination of Indian Citizenship as per Citizenship Act 1955: One can lose citizenship of India in 3 ways – Renunciation, Termination and Deprivation
There are 3 situations under which a citizen of India may lose his Indian Nationality.
- By Renunciation: If any citizen of India who is also a national of another country renounces his Indian citizenship through a declaration in the prescribed manner, he ceases to be an Indian citizen of registration of such declaration.
- By Termination: Any person who acquired Indian citizenship by naturalisation, registration or otherwise,, of he or she voluntarily acquired the citizenship of another country he shall have ceased to be a citizen of India from the date of such acquisition.
- By Deprivation: The Central Government is empowered to deprive a citizen of his citizenship by possible grounds of a citizenship certificate by means of fraud, false representation, concealment of any material fact; disloyalty of disaffection towards the Constitution shown by act or speech; assisting an enemy with whom India is at war.
What are OCI and PIO?
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Merger of OCI and PIO and how it will help
The government has decided to merge the two cards of PIO and OCI and go ahead in this direction.
- Merging PIO and OCI will lead to simplification of the rules under a single umbrella.
- It was envisaged that merger of the card would facilitate visa-free travel to India, rights of residency and participation in business and educational activities in the country.
- This is aimed at simplifying the visa-free entry for people of Indian origin into India.
- The merger of the two cards could make PIO cardholders eligible for benefits already enjoyed by OCI cardholders.
- Merging of the two cards will facilitate travel of Indians staying abroad and their participation in various activities in India.
Other changes to citizenship provisions
The Union Cabinet has approved proposals for extending several benefits to ‘persecuted’ minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh living in India on long-term visas. Many members of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities have come to India fearing persecution in their home countries.
- The beneficiaries can buy property for self-occupation or use in self-employment.
- They are allowed free movement within the State of their stay, and can get their long-term visa papers transferred from one State to another.
- The government has permitted them to apply for long-term visas from the place of their current residence, even if they have moved to the present place without seeking permission.
- The government has waived the penalty on late application for extension of their short- or long-term visas. The registration fees for citizenship will be reduced to Rs. 100 from Rs. 3,000-15,000.
Soon, the Citizenship Rules, 2009, will be amended to help such persons get citizenship.
Legislation to give citizenship to minorities
- In other legislation People belonging to minority communities of Pakistan, staying in India on a Long Term Visa, will soon be able to get citizenship.
- The Centre will set up a 4-day camp here to grant Indian citizenship to those who migrated to India from Pakistan between 1971 and 2009. The application process is divided into three categories to bucket them according to their year of migration.
Bill to amend citizenship act, 1955
- The government is also likely to introduce a Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955
- Amendment: Definition of “illegal migrants” to be changed that will enable the government to grant citizenship to minorities
- The minorities aimed are at mostly Hindus, from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who have fled their country fearing religious persecution
Read all details about this bill and associated issues here:
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