CAA, NRC; A Detailed Analysis

What is CAA?

Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 brought a nation wide protest among the citizens of the country however it is also been misunderstood with the number of false statements and facts been presented to them. The citizen amendment act (CAA) gives citizenship to those illegal migrants who traveled from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in search of jobs, study or for work purpose and stayed in the country without legal permission. 

It cannot be determined if they came with permission under OCI i.e. Overseas Citizens of India, or traveled from Bangladesh without passports or have came to India after separations of nations after independence.

Hence with help of Citizen Amendment Act all those migrants will be provided with citizenship within 5 years irrespective of the cause.

Who is included?

Under Citizen Amendment Bill 2019, all the Hindus, Buddhist, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians will be given Citizenship from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who arrived in the country before 31st December 2014. It exempts certain areas in the North-East from this provision. Also the tribal groups from eastern states. This exemption has been made under Sixth Schedule of the constitution which separates them from the "Inner Line".

The Bill also makes amendments to provisions related to OCI cardholders.  A foreigner may register as an OCI under the 1955 Act if they are of Indian origin (e.g., former citizen of India or their descendants) or the spouse of a person of Indian origin.  This will entitle them to benefits such as the right to travel to India, and to work and study in the country.

Note- The CAB was bought in the assembly first in 2016 which also did not consider Muslims under the amendment bill because of the status of minorities in these countries. All three of them are Islamic states which have other religions in minorities. Therefore to avoid cultural exploitation of eastern nationals, this step was taken into consideration.

NRC (National Register of Citizens)

The National Register of Citizens is a collection of data of all the citizens of the country to keep a record of the people living in the nation. This was proposed long back in early 2000's when many illegal immigrants started entering India from eastern borders of Assam, hence a register was proposed to keep the data check of the people living in the state legally and throw out the illegal immigrants. 

NRC was first brought in 2013-14 but the data could not be maintained due to lack of efficiency and system. Many fake identities were proven, hence a national register was proposed by the BJP government to keep a record of every citizen and count. The central government plans to bring every citizen of India under NRC till 2021.

According to Section 14A, the government will issue a national identity card to every citizen and that would act as a proof of Citizen of India according to Citizen (Amendment) Act 2003, appointed under subsection (1) of section 3 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (18 of 1969) shall act as the National Registration Authority and he shall function as the Registrar General of Citizen Registration.

Assam NRC 
Booted in 2014, NRC was implemented in Assam to calculate the population of people living in Assam who are the actual citizens of India. Hence with much effort a list was made in which people living there had to show the proof of their identity to get their names in the NRC. However many as 19 lakhs were left who could not prove their identity as an Indian Citizen which were left nowhere. This group of people is not of any particular caste, it is a mixed population. Out of which around 15 lakhs are Hindus and 3.5 lakh Muslims those which will be affected.

What will be the result of CAA + NRC?

Just to make it clear both CAA and NRC won't come into effect together, first Citizenship Amendment Act will be regulated which will give citizenship to all those who have come to India before 31st December 2014. This means all those lakhs of immigrants will be given citizenship who were not able to come under NRC. This has not yet been clear if those muslims would also be included in this. After that NRC will be implemented in the whole country due to which every Citizen of India will need to prove their citizenship by showing their birth certificate of their parents, or any birth/ death certificate which proves that they have been Indian Citizens since 1975 or before.

Does this violate Article 14 of Constitution of India?

Firstly Article 14 says “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.” But in the terminology of Political Science “equality” hardly means every human being, irrespective of race, caste, and sex is equal in all circumstances. In fact, Political Science recognizes the fact that there can always be some mental, physical and economic differences and without addressing these differences it is impossible to cater to the idea of Equality.

There are different matrimonial acts in India like Hindu Marriage Act, Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act 1936 and many more which if seen in the literal way do violate article 14. Also reservations is the biggest example of violation of Article 14. Hence if in case of political situation where other mass can be affected, steps can be taken to regulate and mend the act in such a way as to benefit the majority.

Therefore it can be said in a way that Citizen Amendment Act together with NRC also does not violate Article 14 of the Constitution of India.