India's home ministry expanded the list of states and districts where the respective home secretaries and collectors can exercise delegated powers of the central government to grant citizenship to immigrants belonging to six minority communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
With the addition of 13 more districts across five states as well as Punjab and Haryana to the list, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists and Jains from three neighbouring countries, who reside in 29 districts and nine states of India, will face fewer hassles in acquiring Indian citizenship and can apply online. Ministry sources clarified the expansion of locations has no link to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The applicants will have to fulfil residency criteria, requiring them to be ordinarily resident in India for 11 of the 14 years preceding the 12 months prior to applying, and uninterrupted residency in the last 12 months. The applicant can’t be an illegal immigrant. In a notification, the ministry said collectors of Morbi, Rajkot, Patan and Vadodara in Gujarat; Durg and Balodabazar in Chhattisgarh; Jalore, Udaipur, Pali, Barmer and Sirohi in Rajasthan; Faridabad in Haryana and Jalandhar in Punjab would have powers exercisable by the Centre for registration as a citizen of India under Section 5, or for grant of certificate of naturalisation under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 in respect of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladeshi applicants of religious minorities there. The home secretaries of Punjab and Haryana were also delegated these powers.
Since 2018, similar powers stand delegated to the collectors of Raipur in Chhattisgarh; Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Kutch in Gujarat; Bhopal and Indore in MP; Nagpur, Mumbai, Pune and Thane in Maharashtra; Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur in Rajasthan; Lucknow in UP; and West Delhi and South Delhi in Delhi; apart from home secretaries of these seven states/UTs. As per the notification, the verification of application for citizenship shall be done simultaneously by the collector or the secretary and the application and the reports thereon shall be made accessible simultaneously to the central government on online portal.
The collector or the secretary, on being satisfied with the suitability of the applicant, shall grant him the citizenship of India by registration or naturalisation and issue a certificate of registration or naturalisation. The collector and the secretary shall maintain an online as well as physical register containing the details of the person so registered or naturalised as a citizen of India and furnish a copy to the central government within seven days of registration or naturalisation.
