The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) empowered the district collectors of two more districts in Gujarat — Mehsana and Anand — to grant citizenship certificates to the members of Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Christian, Buddhist and Jain communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
This is not the first-time the district magistrates or collectors have been delegated such powers by the MHA, similar orders were issued in 2016, 2018 and 2021 empowering District Magistrates in several districts of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab to grant citizenship certificates to migrants from the six communities who entered India on valid documents. Citizenship is a central subject and from time-to-time MHA delegates State officials to exercise such powers.
The notification is not related to the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 that is yet to come into effect.
The CAA passed in 2019 seeks to grant Indian citizenship to the six undocumented communities who came to India till December 31, 2014.
The October 31 notification intends to benefit legal migrants (who entered on passport/visa) from the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have already applied for Citizenship under Section 5 (by registration) and Section 6 (naturalisation) of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The only way CAA could have helped the legal minority migrants is in fast-tracking their applications as CAA reduces the mandatory requirement of 11 years aggregate stay in India to five years to be eligible for citizenship by naturalisation.
The notification said that the application should be made online and and the verification shall be done by the Collector at the district level and forwarded to central agencies.
Indian citizenship can be acquired on eight grounds—on the basis of registration made by a person of Indian origin; by a person married to an Indian; minor child, whose parents are registered as citizens of India; by a person who or either of the parents was a citizen of Independent India; overseas citizens of India; by naturalisation and registration of a child at an Indian consulate.
