Let me - a non-lawyer explian the #CAA to @Rammadhav. I promise I wont touch on the NCR - that really shows up the true intent oif the CAA. For now I'll focus solely on the Act.
1. It is not the Citizenship Amendment Act. It is to be pedantic, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
1. It is not the Citizenship Amendment Act. It is to be pedantic, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The Citizenship Act of 1955 now stands amended. Most importantly, section 2, sub-section (1), clause (b) of the 1955 Act now has this additional proviso inserted:
So now, people who were regarded as 'illegal migrants' (albeit that they may have been given permission to stay) will now, selectively, provided they are not of the 'undesirable' religion whose name is omitted from the CAA, no longer be illegal migrants.
By implication the others will continue to be subject to the regulations governing illegal migrants, hereinafter referred to by the technical term #ghuspetiya. Note: there is no test of the migrant Hindu Sikh etc, having suffered religious or other persecution. None.
Sec 3 of the #CAA adds a new Section 6B to the 1955 Act and this provides for grant of a Certificate of Naturalisation to "persons of the acceptable faiths" - I am using shorthand here.
Further, the new Section 6(B) (2) makes the grant of citizenship *retrospective* to the DATE of ENTRY into India. This is imp. be. if someone applied under these provisions and was deemed to have been a citizen say from 1971 then any children would automatically be citizens
The new Section 6(B)(3) confers a further benefit to to those immigrants from the prescribed religions: any legal proceedings that may be pending against such a migrant in respect of his 'illegal migration' will be ABATED
In law abatement means termination of a legal case against someone. By implication all others (Note this means Muslims mainly but also migrants from iother countries than #Afhghanistan, #Pakistan and #Bangladesh will continue to suffer such legal proceedings (aka harassment).
I can see nothing in the #CAA that says it is merely a case of fast-tracking of a selected group of migrants with others merely having to wait a bit longer. To suggest that is disingenuous and misleading. @RamMadhav is adding to the confusion, not saying it as it is.
Legislation is not what the framers of the law say it is, it is what the words on the paper say or do not say. If all that the Act seeks to do, as claimed by the Govt, is to recognise the plight of illegal migrants and stop the protests, consider this ver of Sec 2 of the #CAA
Raed the full Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (#CAA) in the original as published in the Gazette of India here:
egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/…
egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/…
