India Today: New Delhi: Thursday, 23 July 2020.
In a Republic based on the
rule of law, some laws do not have rules. Yet. An RTI application has revealed
that the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act is now law but the
parliamentary panel tasked with scrutinising the rules of the Act hasn’t got
them from the Union Home Ministry.
The Act, which makes it
easier for the illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to
become citizens of India, was the catalyst for a winter of national discontent
before the coronavirus struck. The six minority groups that have been entitled
to seek Indian citizenship are Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian and
Parsi. Muslims are excluded. The Act was challenged in the top court as
petitioners said the Bill discriminated against Muslims and violated the right
to equality enshrined in the Constitution.
The Act came into force on
January 10, 2020, an RTI reply by the government has revealed. But confusion over CAA
continues. It seems that the home ministry has not framed the rules as the
parliamentary committee is awaiting them. According to norms, the home ministry
should frame rules and send it to the parliamentary committee within six months
of the relevant law coming into force or seek an extension. None of this has
happened yet.
“The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 (CAB) was considered and
passed by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on December 9, 2019 and December 11, 2019, respectively. On receiving assent of the President of India, it was
enacted on December 12, 2019 and became the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. It came into force on January
10, 2020,” the ministry of home affairs (MHA) told India Today in response to the
Right to Information (RTI) query on April 16, 2020.
According to the procedure,
the home ministry has to frame rules and send it to the Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Subordinate Legislation for scrutiny before brining any Act into
force. So far, the committee has not received any communication from the MHA
and it has decided to write to the ministry on the status of CAA rules.
Chairman of the committee, K.
Raghu Rama Krishna Raju of the YSR Congress, told India Today, “Since six
months are over, statutorily, we have to send a reminder to them (MHA). We will
be sending a reminder to them.”
Raju said, “They may send
rules and regulations or seek an extension of time. Normally, if they seek for
an extension, we give it once or twice.”
When asked whether it means
that the CAA is non-existent as of now, Raju refused to comment. But he said,
“By procedure, it should go through the scrutiny of our committee and then come
into existence.”
When asked about the MHA
response to the RTI that the Act came into force in January 2020, Raju said, “They may have prepared it (rules) but have not sent to us.”
If the MHA does not respond
to his reminder, will the Act lapse? He said, “The Act would not lapse”.
How many people got
citizenship under it so far? The MHA did not respond to this specific RTI
query.
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