New Delhi [India], Might 19 (ANI): The Ministry of Residence Affairs (MHA) has issued a notification saying amendments to the Citizenship Guidelines, 2009, introducing new provisions associated to passport disclosure for candidates from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
A notification, issued late on Monday, states that the amended rules–titled the Citizenship (Modification) Guidelines, 2026–came into impact quickly after its publication within the official gazette.
In train of the powers conferred by part 18 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (57 of 1955). The Central Authorities hereby makes the next guidelines to additional amend the Citizenship Guidelines, 2009, particularly the Citizenship (Modification) Guidelines, 2026,’ reads the notification.
As a part of the adjustments, a brand new clause has been inserted in ‘Schedule IC of the Citizenship Guidelines, requiring candidates to declare whether or not they possess a legitimate or expired passport issued by the governments of Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Bangladesh.’
Underneath the revised provision, ‘candidates should both verify that they don’t maintain such a passport or present detailed data in the event that they do, together with passport quantity, date and place of subject, and date of expiry.’
Moreover, people ‘declaring possession of such passports should undertake to give up them to the involved postal authorities inside 15 days of approval of their citizenship software.’
Officers mentioned the modification goals to streamline documentation and strengthen procedural readability in citizenship functions involving people from these international locations.
The principal Citizenship Guidelines had been initially notified on February 25, 2009 and had been final amended on March 11, 2024.
The Parliament handed the Citizenship (Modification) Invoice 2019 in December 2019 with Union Residence Minister Amit Shah declaring that it’ll give a brand new ray of hope to individuals belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who’ve migrated to India after dealing with persecution on the grounds of faith in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Shah then reiterated that the Invoice isn’t towards any Minority in India and the rights of every Indian Citizen might be equally protected, stressing that the Narendra Modi authorities is dedicated to defending the rights of every citizen of the nation.
Then, Shah additionally mentioned that the Invoice was geared toward giving a dignified life to those individuals who had suffered spiritual persecution for many years by granting Indian Citizenship to them, in the event that they fulfil the circumstances for the grant of citizenship.
The Residence Minister additionally mentioned that the grant of citizenship might be from the date and 12 months of the entry into India, and all of the instances and authorized proceedings towards them can be closed, moreover defending their enterprise and commerce pursuits on an equal footing.
Shah additional added that even when the passports and visas of those minorities had expired, they’d not be handled as unlawful. He additionally underlined that the inhabitants of minorities within the Islamic States of Pakistan and Bangladesh had lowered significantly over time, as they had been both killed or pressured to vary their faith, and thus had been pressured to flee to India.
He mentioned that the partition of India on spiritual traces and the following failure of the Nehru-Liaqat pact of 1950 in defending the rights and dignity of the minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh are the explanations for bringing this Invoice. (ANI)
