The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) is an Act of Parliament that amends the Citizenship Act, 1955. It was created to provide an accelerated pathway to Indian citizenship for specific groups of undocumented immigrants who entered India before a certain date. The Act was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, and received the President's assent on December 12, 2019. The stated purpose was to offer relief to persons facing religious persecution in neighboring countries.
The CAA works by inserting a proviso into Section 2(1)(b) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which defines "illegal migrant". It stipulates that Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, will not be treated as "illegal migrants". This exemption is crucial because the original Act prohibits illegal migrants from acquiring Indian citizenship. Furthermore, the Act relaxes the requirement for citizenship by naturalization for these specific groups, reducing the mandatory residency period in India from eleven years to five years. The Act also adds a new ground for the cancellation of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration under Section 7D of the 1955 Act if the OCI cardholder violates any law of India.
The CAA connects directly to the Citizenship Act, 1955, which governs the acquisition and determination of Indian citizenship, as well as the Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, from which the exempted groups are also relieved of prosecution. The Act does not apply to tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, nor to areas regulated by the Inner Line Permit system. The CAA was implemented with the notification of its rules in March 2024. The Act has been controversial because it uses religion as a criterion for citizenship for the first time under Indian law and excludes Muslims from the specified countries.