Assam: Home Department’s move on Citizenship Amendment Act

A Correspondent

SILCHAR: In a significant relief to the Hindu Bengali refugees, the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma instructed the police not to forward any case to the Foreigners Tribunal involving non-Muslim persons who entered India prior to December 31, 2014. In a letter to the Special Director General of Police (Border), the Home and Political Department Secretary, Partha Pratim Majumdar, on July 5, said, as per the Rules of the CAA, a person belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian community entering India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, or Pakistan on or before December 31, 2014, was eligible to be granted Indian citizenship. The much-debated rules of the controversial CAA were notified by the Union Home Ministry on March 11, 2024. Since then, the BJP government of Tripura has been the first state to implement the CAA.

Majumdar, in his letter, made it clear that, under the provisions of the CAA, the border police should not forward such cases directly to the Foreigners Tribunal. “Such person may be advised to apply in the prescribed form on the portal for citizenship.” Maintaining this, Majumdar said that such applications would subsequently be decided by the Union government based on facts and circumstances. The border police might maintain a separate register for such categories of people.

The state’s Home Department further made it clear to the police that any person entering India after December 31, 2014 would not be entitled to such treatment. Rather, once detected, such a person should be straight away forwarded to the Foreigners Tribunal as per the current practice.

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