MHA excludes 8 regions from 2024 CAA order; pending applications to be transferred to collectors

The Ministry of Home Affairs has changed the mechanism for processing Citizenship Amendment Act applications in eight states and Union Territories, with pending cases handled under the earlier arrangement now set to be transferred to the respective district collectors. The change covers Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, along with specified areas of Assam and Tripura. The Centre has withdrawn these regions from the arrangement created in 2024 under which specially constituted committees processed applications for citizenship under the CAA.

Under the revised framework, district collectors will assume a greater role in receiving, examining and deciding eligible applications. Cases that remain pending before the existing committees will consequently be moved to the collectors concerned. The administrative change comes more than two years after the Centre notified rules for implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act in March 2024.

Eight regions covered by change

The Home Ministry's decision applies to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. It also applies to Assam and Tripura, subject to the areas that remain outside the operation of the CAA because of constitutional and statutory protections.

Certain tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura covered by the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution are outside the CAA's ambit. Areas where the Inner Line Permit system applies are similarly exempt.

The latest changes effectively alter the administrative structure established after the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, were notified. Under that framework, the Centre had created district-level committees to scrutinise documents and empowered committees to take decisions on citizenship applications. The structure was particularly significant because citizenship falls within the Union government's jurisdiction and the committees largely consisted of central government officials.

Collectors get greater authority

The revised rules place district collectors at the centre of the process in the affected regions. Collectors will be able to deal with applications, scrutinise the required documentation and undertake the procedural steps necessary before citizenship is granted. The change is intended to streamline the handling of cases rather than alter the categories of people eligible under the CAA.

Pending applications will not have to restart the entire process. Instead, cases already before the earlier authorities will be transferred to the appropriate collectors for further action. The administrative restructuring is significant in states such as West Bengal, Assam and Punjab, where citizenship and migration have remained politically sensitive subjects.

Who is eligible under CAA

Passed by Parliament in December 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act created a faster route to Indian citizenship for members of six religious communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — who migrated to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan because of religious persecution or fear of such persecution.

To qualify under the legislation, eligible migrants must have entered India on or before December 31, 2014. The law amended the Citizenship Act, 1955, to ensure that people belonging to the specified communities and countries who meet its conditions are not treated as illegal migrants for the purpose of acquiring citizenship.

For eligible applicants, the required period of residence for citizenship by naturalisation was also reduced from 11 years to five years. The law does not provide citizenship automatically. Applicants are required to submit applications and supporting documents, undergo scrutiny and complete the prescribed process before receiving citizenship certificates.

Rules were notified four years after law

Although Parliament approved the CAA in 2019, its operational rules were not notified until March 11, 2024, shortly before that year's Lok Sabha election.

The rules established an online application mechanism and laid down the process for verification, scrutiny and grant of citizenship.

The Centre subsequently began issuing citizenship certificates under the legislation, with the first set handed out in May 2024.

Implementation has remained politically contentious. The BJP has described the CAA as a humanitarian measure intended to provide citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from India's three neighbouring Islamic-majority countries.

Opposition parties and critics have objected to the law's use of religion as a criterion and questioned the exclusion of Muslims from its specified beneficiary groups. The Centre has maintained that the legislation does not take citizenship away from any existing Indian citizen.

Change could speed up pending cases

The latest restructuring is primarily procedural but could have practical consequences for applicants whose cases have remained pending.

Moving responsibility to district collectors may shorten the administrative chain involved in processing applications, particularly in regions where substantial numbers of cases have accumulated.

The amended system also marks another stage in the Centre's evolving implementation of the CAA since the rules came into force in 2024.

For existing applicants in the eight affected regions, the immediate consequence is that pending cases will now move from the earlier committee-based mechanism to the jurisdiction of the appropriate district collector, while the underlying eligibility requirements of the CAA remain unchanged.