Citizenship notification routine, not related to CAA: Govt to Supreme Court

The Union government on Monday told the Supreme Court that its notification dated May 28, 2021, “seeks to merely delegate” to “the local authorities in particular cases”, its power to grant Indian citizenship to members of the minority community in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, has been done on “numerous occasions previously” and “has no relation whatsoever with the CAA [Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019]”.

The Union Home Ministry said this in an affidavit filed in the top court opposing an intervention application filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), challenging the May 28 notification.

IUML filed the application in its petition challenging the CAA. Opposing this, the government pointed out that the two are different and “it is inconceivable” that the intervention application can be filed in the original writ petition against the citizenship law.

The May 28 notification, MHA pointed out, “does not provide for any relaxations to the foreigners and applies only to foreigners who have entered the country legally”. The central Government, it said, only used its authority under Section 16 of The Citizenship Act, 1955 – which confers on it powers to delegate some of its powers to grant citizenship to such officer or authority as may be specified — and delegated its powers to grant citizenship by Registration or Naturalisation to District Collectors. It is merely an administrative delegation of power without any specific classification or relaxation, said the affidavit.

The Ministry said Section 18 of The Citizenship Act, 1955, confers on the Central Government powers to make appropriate rules to carry out the provisions of the Act.

In 2004, the government notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2004, which delegated the power to grant citizenship by Registration under Section 5, in respect of Pakistani nationals of minority Hindu community, to four district collectors in Gujarat and to the state’s home secretary, if such Pakistani nationals lived in other districts. The said notification also enabled collectors of Barmer and Jaisalmer districts to register as citizens of India “Pak nationals of minority Hindu community” displaced due to the 1965 and 1971 wars.

In 2016, the Centre delegated its powers to grant citizenship by registration or naturalisation to collectors of 16 districts and home secretaries of 7 states in respect of migrants from six minority communities of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh for two years, the affidavit said, adding this was done to fast track citizenship applications of this category of foreigners.