The Minority Report

CITIZENSHIP

- Rohit Parihar

On May 28, the Centre issued a notification stating that collectors in 13 districts across Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab and home secretaries of Punjab and Haryana, have been given the power to grant citizenship to immigrants from any one of six minority religious communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This could benefit at least 30,000 legal non-Muslim immigrants living in India.

The notification read: “In exercise of powers conferred under Section 16 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (57 of 1955), the Central Government hereby directs that powers exercisable by it for registration as citizen of India under Section 5, or for grant of certificate of naturalisation under section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, in respect of any person belonging to minority community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, residing in the districts mentioned... and the states mentioned by the collectors...”. The 13 districts include Jalore, Udaipur, Pali, Barmer and Sirohi in Rajasthan; Morbi, Rajkot, Patan and Vadodara in Gujarat; Durg and Balodabazar in Chhattisgarh; Faridabad in Haryana; and Jalandhar in Punjab.