New Delhi: Two months after the Centre notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday issued the first set of citizenship certificates to 14 people.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla handed over the certificates to the applicants in New Delhi and highlighted salient features of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.
The CAA was enacted in December 2019 to grant Indian nationality to non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.
The CAA had got the President’s assent soon after its enactment, but the rules were framed only on March 11 this year.
Under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, the qualification period of application for citizenship has been reduced from 11 to five years for non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014
