MHA releases first batch of 14 citizenship certificates four and a half years after passing CAA law

Taking the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on to the next stage, the central government has issued its first batch of citizenship certificates to 14 people. This comes four and a half years after the act was converted into a law, the union home ministry reported. In New Delhi, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla greeted the beneficiaries and gave the first batch of citizenship certificates to the applicants. 

On March 11 of this year, the Home Ministry notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024. The guidelines specify how the application should be completed, how the District Level Committee (DLC) will handle applications, and how the state-level Empowered Committee (EC) will review and award citizenship. 

The MHA has received applications from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan from people belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities in the last two months. These are the people who entered India until December 31, 2014, on the grounds of religion-based persecution or because of a fear of the same. 

After successfully verifying the applicants' credentials, the DLCs headed by the senior superintendents of post or superintendents of post as designated officials administered the oath of loyalty to the applicants, according to a statement released by the MHA.

DLCs have sent the applications to the State Level Empowered Committee, led by the director (census operation), after processing them in accordance with the requirements. It further said that all application processing is done online through the site.

“The Empowered Committee, headed by the director (census operation), Delhi, after due scrutiny, have decided to grant citizenship to 14 applicants. Accordingly, the director (census operation) granted certificates to these applicants”, MHA stated on Wednesday. 

The fundamental regulations for the CAA were not formulated when the law was passed in December 2019. After it was passed, there were objections, but they only subsided after the COVID-19 outbreak and a number of petitions that are still pending before the Supreme Court.