Centre opens citizenship window in five states

Context: Recently, the Centre issued a gazette notification granting powers under existing rules to authorities in 13 districts of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab to accept, verify and approve citizenship applications from members of minority communities hailing from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
Key Points

• It lists Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians as the communities that will be covered, and states that the applications will have to be submitted online.
• The order has been issued under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship Rules, 2009.
• Granted powers to District collectors of all the above-mentioned districts and to the home secretaries of Haryana and Punjab.

Provisions

• The Collector or the Secretary on being satisfied with the suitability of the applicant, grants him the citizenship of India by registration or naturalisation and issues a certificate of registration or naturalisation duly printed from online portal, and signed by the Collector or the Secretary in the Form as prescribed in the said rules.
• The Collector and Secretary to maintain an online as well as physical register, containing details of the person registered or naturalised as a citizen of India and furnish a copy to the Central Government within seven days of registration or naturalisation.

About Citizenship and How is citizenship determined

• Citizenship signifies the relationship between individual and state. It begins and ends with state and law, and is thus about the state, not people.

Principles of Citizenship

• Jus soli confers citizenship based on place of birth.
• Jus sanguinis gives recognition to blood ties.

Legal Provisions
Constitutional status

• Citizenship is in the Union List under the Constitution and thus under the exclusive authority of Parliament.
• The Constitution does not define the term ‘citizen’ but gives, in Articles 5 to 11, details of various categories of persons who are entitled to citizenship.
• Article 5: It provided for citizenship on commencement of the Constitution. All those domiciled and born in India were given citizenship. Even those who were domiciled but not born in India, but either of whose parents was born in India, were considered citizens. Anyone who had been an ordinary resident for more than five years, too, was entitled to apply for citizenship.
• Article 6: It says that anyone who migrated to India before July 19, 1949, would automatically become an Indian citizen if either of his parents or grandparents was born in India. But those who entered India after this date needed to register themselves.
• Article 7: Even those who had migrated to Pakistan after March 1, 1947, but subsequently returned on resettlement permits were included within the citizenship net.
• Article 8: Any Person of Indian Origin residing outside India who, or either of whose parents or grandparents, was born in India could register himself or herself as ab Indian citizen with Indian Diplomatic Mission.

Statutory Acts

• The Citizenship Act, 1955 was passed and has been amended four times — in 1986, 2003, 2005, and 2015.
• The Act empowers the government to determine the citizenship of persons in whose case it is in doubt.
• The Foreigners Act is also another provision where there is a heavy burden on the individual to prove that he is not a foreigner.