JJC Musings: CAA as a Stand Alone Act

A primary pro-CAA argument has been to consider it as a stand alone Act and NOT couple it with NRC. So let's look at CAA and understand the changes brought in. Post that let's look at the feasibility and implement-ability of CAA as a stand alone Act

2 main changes in Citizenship Act based on CAA

Definition of an illegal migrant - The parent act defined an illegal migrant as

A foreigner who enter India without a valid passport or any travel documents
A foreigner with passport and travel documents who overstays his allowed period of stay

The Amendment added an exception....

A foreigner who enter India without a valid passport or any travel documents
A foreigner with passport and travel documents who overstays his allowed period of stay
Provided that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014 shall not be treated as illegal migrant

Citizenship by Naturalisation.- As per the Original Act,

This is applicable ONLY to Foreign Nationals
This is NOT applicable to illegal migrants
Eligibility - He/she has either resided in India throughout the period of 12 months immediately preceding the date of the application. During the fourteen years immediately preceding the said period of twelve months, he/ she has resided in India for periods amounting in the aggregate to not less than 11 years.
Documents Needed - Copy of Valid Foreign Passport AND Copy of Indian Residential Permit/ Long term Visa

The Amendment made the option of Naturalisation (Certificate of Registration or Certificate of naturalisation) available to any person with or without travel documents belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014

Eligibility for Certificate - He/she has either resided in India throughout the period of 12 months immediately preceding the date of the application. During the fourteen years immediately preceding the said period of twelve months, he/ she has resided in India for periods amounting in the aggregate to not less than 5 years
Documents Needed - ?????????????? As per the amendment, the government has the power to make rules regarding the conditions, restrictions and manner for granting certificate of registration or certificate of naturalisation for these people

Once he/she gets the Certificate of Registration/ Naturalisation, the amendment enables them to be deemed as a citizen of India from his/her date of entry if he/she fulfills any of conditions mentioned in Image 1 OR all the conditions mentioned in the Image 2. For the following conditions, person is of Indian origin if he or either of his parents are born in undivided India after 15th August, 1947
The person who makes the application for citizenship under this section shall not be deprived of his rights and privileges to which he was entitled on the date of receipt of his application on the ground of making such application

Image 1 - Section 5 of Original Act - Any of the conditions to be met

Image 2 - Third Schedule of the original Act - All the conditions to be met. 11 years reduced to 5 years

Implications of the above changes

There is an already existing naturalisation process for foreign nationals staying in India for long time. The existing Naturalisation application process already had exceptions for certain countries as shown below. But the applicants have to upload atleast Visa (valid or invalid) to prove foreign nationality.

So the CAA Amendment naturalisaton is about people with NO valid passport or travel documents whatsoever, who have lived in India for at-least 5 years. If it is going to be an application based process (like the normal naturalization), who will apply for this voluntarily?, what kind of supporting documents shall the government demand from the applicants? Or rather is it possible in anyways to implement this provision in an application based format given that these people will have no documents whatsoever to prove their parent countries. The devil lies in this detail...... Without an NRC looming, there is no way CAA can be implemented as a stand alone Act inviting application from people. Out of our 1.37 billion population, around 900 million are adults and around 900 million has voters ID. There is no reason for an individual possessing ANY Indian document to voluntarily apply for this provision with no proofs to support.