CAA does not deprive any Indian of citizenship: MHA

New Delhi, Apr 27: The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) does not deprive any Indian of citizenship, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said. It also said that the legislation is compassionate and amliorative.

In its latest annual report for 2020-21, the MHA said that the CAA is a limited and narrowly tailored legislation which seeks to provide a relaxation to aforesaid specific communities from the specified countries with a clear cut-off date. It is a compassionate and ameliorative legislation.

The CAA does not apply to Indian citizens. Therefore, it does not in any way take away or abridge the rights of any Indian citizen. Further, the present legal process of acquiring Indian citizenship by any foreigner of any category as provided in the Citizenship Act-1955 is very much operational and the CAA does not amend or alter this legal position in any manner whatsoever. Hence, legal migrants of any religion from any country will continue to get Indian citizenship once they fulfil the eligibility conditions already provided in the law for registration or naturalisation, the MHA also said.

Notified on December 2019, the CAA aims to give citizenship to the religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan. The religious minorities in this case are the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains and Christians.

After the CAA came into force on January 10 2020, there were widespread protests across the country.

The protesters tried to perceive it as an attempt to deprive Muslims of Indian citizenship. While the CAA has been notified, the notification of rules is yet to be implemented.