Ahead of Assembly elections in Gujarat, the Union home ministry has issued an order instructing the district collectors of Anand and Mehsana to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews, and Christians who fled religious persecution in neighbouring countries.
In the order released by its foreigners’ division, the ministry has asked the district administrations to issue the “certificate of naturalisation” to these persecuted persons in these two districts under the provision of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
These communities from neighbouring Islamic countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been listed to be granted citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA).
Interestingly, as the ministry has yet to finalise the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
The home ministry directed local authorities to maintain all conditions mentioned in the Constitution in granting citizenship to the religiously persecuted communities through the process of registration.
The order said that the eligible candidates need to submit their applications in online mode, which will be verified by the collector at the district level. The application and reports reflecting the observation of the collector will then be made accessible to the Central government on the online portal.
“The collector, may make such inquiry as he considers necessary for ascertaining the suitability of the applicant for that purpose, forwards the application online to such agencies for verification and comments as may be required for completing such an inquiry and the instructions issued by the Central government from time to time in this regards shall be strictly complied with by the state or union territory and district concerned,” the order, dated October 31, reads.
It further said that after completing the entire process, the collector, being satisfied with the suitability of the applicant, grants him/her citizenship of India by registration or naturalisation and issues a certificate of registration or naturalisation.
It is pertinent to note that the Supreme Court has fixed December 6 for hearing the petitions challenging the CAA.