The Centre on Tuesday granted an extension for the seventh time from the Parliamentary Committees on Subordinate Legislation in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to frame the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, said sources.
The time to frame CAA rules has been extended till 31 December this year by the Parliamentary Committees on Subordinate Legislation in the Rajya Sabha, and till 9 January 2023, by the Parliamentary Committees on Subordinate Legislation in the Lok Sabha. The Parliamentary Committees gave their nod another time to extend rules for the CAA taking cognizance of a request made by the Ministry of Home Affairs as the earlier extension ended on 9 October.
The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by Parliament on 11 December 2019, and the Presidential approval came the next day. In January 2020, the Ministry notified that the Act would come into force from 10 January 2020, but it later requested the Parliamentary Committees in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to give it some more time to implement rules as the country was going through its worst ever health crisis due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier, the MHA had sought time from the Parliamentary Committees for similar extensions six times. The first extension was granted in June 2020 for notifying CAA rules.
The legislation, which grants citizenship to illegal immigrants belonging to Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Parsi, Christian and Buddhist communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, was passed by Parliament amid vehement criticism from the Opposition that pointed out the communal agenda behind the law as it conspicuously left out Muslims.
The legislation has been interpreted in conjunction with repeated assertions by Home Minister Amit Shah -before the Act was passed -that there would be a nationwide exercise to prepare the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) to identify illegal immigrants. This was interpreted as a project to disenfranchise Muslims. While nationwide protests were seen following the passage of the law, and multiple states have announced they would not implement the law.
However, the law is yet to be implemented as rules under the CAA are yet to be framed.