Parl clears bill to strengthen immigration laws

Heftier fines among bill's key provisions

- Zia Haq

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Immigration and Foreigners Bill, 2025, a legislation aimed at strengthening security procedures for and monitoring of visitors, including new provisions for real-time tracking of people entering, staying and exiting the country, along with steeper penalties for violators.

The bill, already passed by the Lok Sabha on March 27, was cleared by a voice vote after a debate and will now be sent for President Droupadi Murmu's approval. Several members of the Opposition red-flagged the sweeping powers given to the immigration bureau under the bill. They said the bill treated all foreigners with suspicion and some of its provisions violated the privacy of individuals.

Replying to the debate, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said India would always welcome visitors, citing the country's "centuries of history as a welcoming place". He said an updated immigration law was necessary to check anybody with "mala fide intentions" from entering India.

"The bill will enable foreigners to deal with a single authority. This will ease their compliance burdens... We are only talking of monitoring here," he said, adding the current laws on immigration were scattered and overlapping in nature.

Intervening in the debate, Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi demanded that the bill be referred to a standing committee because it proposed to give "excessive power to lowly officials and lacks provisions for appeal, oversight and accountability, among other things" and made the decision of an immigration officer final and binding.

The Congress MP said the bill empowers the Centre to refuse entry or deport any foreigner on "such other grounds as the central government may specify", other than the grounds of national security, sovereignty and public health, he said.