Centre Issues Clarification on Documents Needed for Citizenship under CAA

New Delhi: The government at the Centre has broadened the scope of the rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), allowing persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan to obtain Indian nationality. The Union Home Ministry has announced that "any document" issued by central or state governments, or a quasi-judicial body in India, confirming that an applicant's parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent was a citizen of one of these three countries will now be accepted.

This clarification comes in response to reports that many applicants were encountering difficulties due to a specific clause in the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.

"Any document that shows that either of the parents or grandparents or great grandparents of the applicant is or had been a citizen of one of the three countries i.e of Afghanistan or Bangladesh or Pakistan," the earlier clause of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 says.

In its latest clarification, the home ministry said: "It may be clarified that the documents under Sr No. 8 of the Schedule -1A may include any document issued by the central government/state government/ any judicial or quasi judicial body in India such as land record, judicial order etc., identifying or representing that the applicant or the parents or grandparents or great grandparents had been a national of Afghanistan or Bangladesh or Pakistan."

"The above clarification may be taken note of while deciding any citizenship application under Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), it said.

The CAA was enacted in December 2019 for granting Indian nationality to persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

After the enactment, the CAA got the president's assent but the rules under which Indian citizenship would be granted were issued only on March 11 this year, after over a delay of four years.

Since May, the government has been granting citizenship to those coming from the three countries under the CAA.

The nod to the CAA in 2019 sparked protests in different parts of the country with agitators terming it "discriminatory".

Over a hundred people lost their lives during the anti-CAA protests or police action in various parts of the country.