The Citizenship Act is a mere skeleton, whose flesh and blood was left to be dictated by executive action
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 tells us who, in the eyes of the Indian government, has a right to be considered for citizenship. So far, no illegal migrant could be considered for citizenship. Now, the government can grant citizenship to persons with certain religious identities (Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Christians, Buddhists) and from certain countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan) who entered India after fleeing religious persecution — and are thus presumably “illegal migrants” — on or before December 31, 2014. Much has been written about the classification of the Act’s beneficiaries reinforcing a pre-existing inequality in the Indian context, while also being under-inclusive: it singles out Muslims who face other kinds of persecution in these very countries and ignores religious minorities of other countries such as Sri Lanka and Myanmar. This is the first of many questions that the government must answer in the Supreme Court. There are some other questions that also need answering.
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