NRC and how it's different from the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 - Advocate Suyog Shah

NRC and how it's different from the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 

The NRC identified illegal immigrants from Assam on the Supreme Court's order. This has been a state-specific exercise to keep its ethnic uniqueness unaltered.

If the details of the detained are matched and accepted by the concerned nations, deportations will follow. 

As soon as the Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed in both houses of Parliament and given Presidential assent making it a law, loud murmurs started about another move- the National Register of Citizens or NRC. What is NRC and does it really create a problem if clubbed with CAA, here's what you need to know : -

What is NRC ?

NRC is the National Register of Citizens. The NRC identified illegal immigrants from Assam on the Supreme Court's order. This has been a state-specific exercise to keep its ethnic uniqueness unaltered. But ever since its implementation, there has been a growing demand for its nationwide implementation. Now, many top BJP leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah have insisted that the NRC in Assam be implemented across India. It effectively suggests to bring in a legislation that will enable the government to identify infiltrators who have been living in India illegally, detain them and deport them to where they came from.

Who stands to lose ?

The Act, upon implementation will target illegal immigrants in India. But Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhist, Jains and Parsis coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh won't be affected, if they claim they have arrived India after fleeing religious persecution. Which essentially means, if a nationwide NRC comes in, any illegal immigrant from other than Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, will be affected. And as for those three nations, people coming from there who belong to the Muslim community will also be affected as they are not included in the Citizenship Amendment Act.

What will happen to the affected ?

If a nationwide NRC comes in place, the affected will be detained and taken to large detention centres, as it is happening in Assam. After that, the Ministry of External Affairs will get in touch with the concerned nations. If the details of the detained are matched and accepted by the concerned nations, deportations will follow. The politics of NRC BJP Chief Mr.Amit Shah has been raising the pitch for a nationwide NRC for some time now. As late as this October, Mr.Amit Shah raised the matter in West Bengal, not far from Assam. He had said: "We had brought the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha, but the TMC MPs did not allow the Upper House to function. They did not allow the bill to be passed, and due to this, there are people in our country who are yet to get the Indian citizenship." 

What is CAA ?

The Act amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, excluding Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before 31 December 2014, eligible for Indian citizenship.

Under the Act, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalization is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, and for 11 of the previous 14 years. The Act relaxes this 11-year requirement to five years for persons belonging to the same six religions and three countries.

These provisions of Act will not apply to the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura, included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution as well as the areas which are regulated through the Inner Line Permit.

The Act provides that the registration of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders may be cancelled if they violate any law.

The legislation applies to those who were “forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to persecution on the ground of religion”. It aims to protect such people from proceedings of illegal migration. The cut-off date for citizenship is December 31, 2014 which means the applicant should have entered India on or before that date. Indian citizenship, under present law, is given either to those born in India or if they have resided in the country for a minimum of 11 years. The Act also proposes to incorporate a sub-section (d) to Section 7, providing for cancellation of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration where the OCI card-holder has violated any provision of the Citizenship Act or any other law in force.

Central Government says these minority groups have come escaping persecution in Muslim-majority nations. However, the logic is not consistent – the bill does not protect all religious minorities, nor does it apply to all neighbours. The Muslim sector and even Shias face discrimination in Pakistan. Rohingya Muslims and Hindus face persecution in neighbouring Burma, and Hindu and Christian Tamils in neighbouring Sri Lanka. The government responds that Muslims can seek refuge in Islamic nations, but has not answered the other questions.

According to the Home Minister Mr.Amit Shah the Act would not have been necessary if the Congress did not agree to Partition on the basis of religion. However, India was not created on the basis of religion, Pakistan was. Only the Muslim League and the Hindu Right advocated the two nation theory of Hindu and Muslim nations, which led to Partition. All the founders of India were committed to a secular state, where all citizens irrespective of religion enjoyed full membership. Either way, this logic for the CAB also collapses because Afghanistan was not part of pre-Partition India.

CAA won't apply to areas under the sixth schedule of the Constitution – which deals with autonomous tribal-dominated regions in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. The bill will also not apply to states that have the inner-line permit regime (Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram).

Among the states in the Northeast, the outrage against CAG has been the most intense in Assam. While a chunk of these states have been exempted from the legislation, CAB overs a large part of Assam. The protests stem from the fear that illegal Bengali Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, if regularised under CAB, will threaten cultural and linguistic identities of the state.

The CAA ringfences Muslim identity by declaring India a welcome refuge to all other religious communities. It seeks to legally establish Muslims as seek or violate the right to equality.

The President gave his assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, on December 12, a day after it was passed by the Rajya Sabha. However, the home ministry has yet to notify the rules to operationalise the law. The notification of rules may now have to wait as a decision in this regard will be taken after seeking experts’ advice since the matter is sub judice before the Supreme Court.

The petitions against the Act are listed for hearing on January 22. In case experts feel that the rules can be challenged on legal grounds, the government will wait till January 22. Since the apex court did not clamp a stay on CAA, the home ministry could notify rules about who all can apply for citizenship, notify the authority and state minimum requirements and cut-off date.

Regards

Adv.Suyog Chandulal Shah

Nashik