Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 is one of the landmark achievements of present BJP government and it was passed on wee hours of Tuesday 9th December 2019. Here are the unknownfacts and highlights of the bill, also know that #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 is trending on social media with both support and opposition among people.
- Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 was passed in Lok Sabha with a majority of 311 votes against opposition of 80 votes
- The bill was one of the major election promises by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
- The bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to refugees belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian and Parsi communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
- If the bill gets a nod in Rajya Sabha and becomes a law, people from these communities will no longer be jailed or deported under the Foreigners Act of 1966 and the Passport (Entry into India) Act of 1920.
- The bill will not apply to areas under the sixth schedule of the Constitution – Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. The bill will also not apply to states that have inner-line permit regime – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.
- Any person applying for citizenship should have entered India on or before December 31, 2014, to be eligible.
- The bill also seeks to incorporate a sub-section (d) to Section 7, providing for cancellation of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration in cases of violation of any provision of the Citizenship Act or any other law in force.
- Any person who gets his/her OCI registration cancelled should stay in the country for six years before applying for citizenship again.
- Unlike CAB, NRC is not based on religion.
- The National Register of Citizens that is being implemented in Assam targets illegal immigrants.
- A person has to prove that either they, or their ancestors were in Assam on or before March 24, 1971 to avoid getting deported