New Delhi: Against the backdrop of Union Minister Shantanu Thakur’s claim that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) would be implemented across India within a week, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday clarified that no time has been fixed for its implementation across the country.
“There is no exact time duration for the implementation of CAA. However, it will be implemented anytime before the Lok Sabha election,” said a senior official in the home ministry. Minister of State for Shipping and Waterways Shantanu Thakur claimed during a public meeting at South 24 Parganas in West Bengal on Sunday that CAA would be implemented across India within the next seven days.
“I can guarantee that in the next seven days, not just in West Bengal, but the CAA will be implemented across India,” he said. Recently, the Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation in the Lok Sabha has given another extension to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for framing rules for the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The last extension that was earlier given by the subordinate legislation expired on January 9. The official said that the extension is only a procedural formality since the last extension was expiring on Tuesday. “Such extension was necessary until the CAA rules were actually notified,” the official said. Earlier this month, a top home ministry official said that the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 are ready with the central government and will be notified much before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections.
According to the official, the rules are ready and the online portal is also in place and the entire process will be online. The applicants will have to declare the year when they entered India without travel documents. No document will be sought from the applicants, the official stated. The CAA was passed on December 11, 2019, receiving assent from the President on December 12 same year. The MHA has notified that the Act will come into force from January 10, 2020.
The manual of the Parliamentary work says that if a ministry is not able to frame the rules governing legislation within the prescribed period of six months after the law is passed, they should seek an extension of time from the committee on Subordinate Legislation stating reasons for such extension. The Act aims to grant Indian nationality to persecuted migrants belonging to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014.
