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Nationwide NRC but Centre has to set cutoff date first
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- As per senior govt. Official, before rolling out a plan to compile a countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC) on the lines of the document compiled in Assam, the centre needs to decide a common cutoff date.
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- Earlier Home Minister Amit Shah had reiterated his stand on a wider NRC exercise and also on bringing the Citizenship Amendment Bill before NRC.”
- The Bill seeks to provide citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from the three neighbouring countries i.e Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- The official said that under Article 6 of the Constitution, the cutoff date for migration to India from Pakistan is July 19, 1948. “There are other provisions like citizenship by birth and naturalisation as per the Citizenship Act, 1955. Several States are demanding NRC but States are competent enough to detect and deport foreign nationals,”.
- In Assam, the cutoff date for inclusion in the updated NRC is March 25, 1971, as spelt out in the Assam Accord. The Assam NRC was monitored by the Supreme Court. The final list published on August 31 excluded 19 lakh out of 3.29 crore applicants in the State.
- According to ViceChancellor of NALSAR, Hyderabad, Faizan Mustafa, the date to acquire Indian citizenship for those who migrated from Pakistan is 1948 only. They become citizens automatically and those who came after that date, need a registration. “First, the constitutionality of cutoff date should be determined. If tomorrow, the SC that is examining the NRC, says that the cutoff date for Assam should be 1948 and not 1971, then the entire exercise will be futile,”.
- Tripura case
(1) A civil society group, the Tripura People’s Front, filed a petition in the Supreme Court in October 2018 seeking an NRC exercise in the State by taking July 19, 1948 as the cutoff date. It said the “uncontrolled influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to Tripura has caused huge demographic changes... the indigenous people who were once the majority has now become a minority in their own land.”
(2) The group filed a subsequent petition in the Supreme Court opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) that negates the purpose of the NRC as it allows citizenship to all illegal non-Muslims from the three neighbouring countries who came in till December 31, 2014.
(3) The Bill in its earlier form lapsed in the Rajya Sabha. The government has hinted that a modified Bill will be introduced in the winter session of Parliament.
- Also in response to the petition, the Home Ministry filed an affidavit that adequate laws existed to “detect, detain and deport illegal immigrants.
(1) The Police can exercise the power to arrest a foreign national living illegally in India under section 4 of passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920
(2) Action on any foreign national who stays beyond the period stipulated in the isa can be taken under section 14 of the foreigners act, 1946.
Sources
The Hindu