Citizenship

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking directions to enrol Rohingya refugee children in local schools, saying it was the Centre's domain. A bench comprising Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said the matter pertained to "international issues" having ramifications on security and nationality, and therefore, the petitioner should make a representation to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. Petitioner NGO, Social Jurist, submitted the Delhi government and the MCD were not granting admissions to these children from Myanmar in their schools for want of an Aadhaar card. The court said the petitioner's representation would be decided by the authorities as expeditiously as possible. "Let (Ministry of) Home Affairs (MHA) take a call on this. There are a lot of issues involved. We can't get involved. Let it go to the MHA," the bench said. The court observed "Rohingyas were foreigners" who hadn't been "officially and legally granted entry into

Over more than a decade, the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram has amassed various different citizenships, something that's only added to the mystery surrounding his detention in France. Those passports provided Pavel Durov protection after he created and ran Telegram as a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist. The app has been used by some to plan protests in repressive governments like in Iran and his native Russia. However, Western governments allege Telegram aided the work of drug traffickers, money launderers, militant groups and child pornographers. "To be truly free, you should be ready to risk everything for freedom," Durov once wrote on Instagram, interspersed between images of himself shirtless with the skyscrapers of Dubai or the ruins of Mada'in Saleh in Saudi Arabia behind him. That risk now appears to have caught up with him, despite passports from Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, and his wealth, estimated by Forbes to b

The Assam government on Thursday said over 47,900 foreigners have been detected in the state from 1971 to 2014, out of which more than 43 per cent are Hindus. In a written reply to a query by AGP MLA Ponakan Baruah, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Foreigners Tribunal (FT) has declared 47,928 people as foreigners between 1971 and 2014. Out of them, 27,309 were Muslims, 20,613 Hindus and six belonged to other religions, he said. The CM said the highest number of foreigners was detected in Cachar. Out of 10,152 declared foreigners, 8,139 were Hindus and the remaining 2,013 were Muslims. As per the Assam Accord, names of all foreigners coming to the state on or after March 25, 1971 would be detected and deleted from electoral rolls and steps would be taken to deport them. Sarma said that according to the 2011 census, the state had a total Assamese speaking population of 1.51 crore, making up 48.38 per cent of the 3.12 crore residents. There were 90.24 lakh Bengali speakin

As registration opened on Monday for an estimated 500,000 spouses of US citizens to gain legal status without having to first leave the country, Karen and Xavier Chavarria had nothing to celebrate. Like many others, Karen left the United States voluntarily in her case, for Nicaragua as the price of living in the country illegally, planning to accumulate enough time away to be able reenter and reunite with her husband, Xavier, on a path to citizenship. Joe Biden's offer of a path to citizenship without having to first leave the country for up to 10 years is one of the biggest presidential orders to ease entry for immigrants since 2012, when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme allowed temporary but renewable stays for hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States as young children with their parents. To be eligible, spouses must have lived in the United States continuously for 10 years as of June 17, 2024, and been married by then. The Biden ...

In 2019, Subramanian Swamy had written to the MHA, claiming that a firm named Backops Ltd was registered in the United Kingdom in 2003 and the Congress MP was one of its directors and secretary

Dulon Das (50) has become the first person in Assam to receive citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), sparking strong reactions from opposition parties and student groups. Originally from Bangladesh's Sylhet, Das entered India in 1988 and settled in Silchar, Cachar district. He did not apply for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) but managed to obtain various government documents, including a voter card, driving licence and PAN and Aadhaar cards, despite his illegal status, one of his kin alleged. "He applied for citizenship through the dedicated online portal on April 1. It was approved yesterday and he received a mail from the Union Home Ministry. Das has now been asked to collect the citizenship certificate physically," he added. During the application process, Das provided a land deed from his father, who had purchased land in Sylhet district in 1986. Das is married to an Indian woman, and they have two children born in Assam. The Citizenship (Amendment)

More than 2.16 lakh Indians renounced their citizenship in 2023, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said this in a written response to queries on Indian citizens who have renounced their citizenship in the last five years. In his response, he also shared the corresponding data for 2011-2018. In 2023, the number of Indians who renounced their citizenship stood at 2,16,219 (2.16 lakh). The corresponding figure for 2022 was 2,25,620 (2.25 lakh); 1,63,370 (1.63 lakh) in 2021; 85,256 in 2020; and 1,44,017 (1.44 lakh) in 2019, according to the data. The query from AAP member Raghav Chadha was also on whether the government had taken steps to find the reasons for such "high number of renunciation" and "low acceptance of Indian citizenship" and, if so, the details thereof. He also sought to know whether the government had tried to determine the "financial as well as intellectual drainage" and loss to the country

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said good governance reforms undertaken in the last decade will continue to increase citizen-centricity and ensure ease of living for every citizen. Assuming charge as Union Minister of State (MoS) for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions at his North Block office here, he said this third term of the NDA government would be a continuity of the work done over the last 10 years under the previous two dispensations headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi is in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. "Last 10 years have witnessed a series of revolutionary governance reforms happening under the guidance of PM Modi, which were basically inspired by the spirit of 'minimum government, maximum governance' and increasing citizen centricity to bring ease of living for every citizen of the country," Singh told reporters after taking over the charge of the ministry. He later told PTI that many people-friendly measur

The Union government Wednesday started granting citizenship under the CAA in West Bengal, Haryana and Uttarakhand, the Home Ministry said. The applicants in the three states were granted citizenship on Wednesday by the respective State Empowered Committee, the ministry said in a statement. The first set of citizenship certificates after the notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, granted by the Empowered Committee, Delhi, were handed over to the applicants in New Delhi by the Union Home Secretary on May 15. The CAA was enacted in December 2019 for granting Indian nationality to persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. After the enactment, the CAA got the president's assent but the rules under which the Indian citizenship was granted were issued on March 11 after over a delay of four years.

The Tripura government has constituted a six-member state-level empowered committee with Director Census Operations, as chairman to grant citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, an official said on Friday. The CAA was enacted in December 2019 for granting Indian nationality to persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. "Following directives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the state-level empowered committee for granting Indian citizenship under the CAA has been formed," Director, Census Operations, Rabindra Reang told PTI. He said all District Magistrates of the state have been asked to constitute district-level empowered committees to receive applications under the CAA and undertake scrutiny before forwarding it to the state-level empowered panel. Reang said residents who are living under the areas of Sixth schedule areas (Tribal Areas Autonomous

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday asserted that no Indian, irrespective of their faith, will lose citizenship with the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. He charged the opposition Congress and DMK with "creating confusion" over the issue. Rajnath was speaking after taking out a roadshow here in support of the party's Namakkal candidate for the April 19 Lok Sabha elections, KP Ramalingam. The BJP always implemented what it promised and the construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya, abrogation of Article 370 and the CAA were such assurances, he said. "We promised a citizenship act, and we did it. I want to clarify that any citizen of India--whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew--nobody's citizenship will go away," he said. "The DMK and Congress are creating confusion on the matter," he alleged. On the abolition of triple Talaq, he said "mothers and sisters" from any faith are "our mothers and sisters." "Any atrocity against our mothers and sist

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has voiced concern over the Indian government's notification of rules to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), saying no one should be denied citizenship based on religion or belief. Rules for implementation of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) were notified earlier this month, paving the way for granting citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The problematic CAA establishes a religious requirement for asylum seekers in India fleeing neighbouring countries, USCIRF Commissioner Stephen Schneck said in a statement Monday. Schneck said that while CAA provides a fast track to citizenship for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians, the law explicitly excludes Muslims. While critics have questioned the government over the exclusion of Muslims from the Act, India has strongly defended its move. "The CAA is about giving citizens

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The Centre on Tuesday sought time from the Supreme Court to file a reply to the applications seeking a stay on the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud that he needed some time to respond to the 20 applications which have sought a stay on the Rules till the apex court disposes of the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. "It (CAA) does not take away citizenship of any person," Mehta told the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. The hearing is underway. The Centre had on March 11 paved the way for the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, with the notification of the relevant rules, four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament to fast-track Indian citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan w

An American senator has expressed concern over the Indian government notifying rules for the implementation of the CAA, saying that as the US-India relationship deepens, it is important that the cooperation is based on shared values of protecting human rights of all, regardless of religion. The Indian government implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 last week, paving the way for the grant of citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014. The government also came out with a press statement to say that Indian Muslims need not worry as the CAA will not impact their citizenship and has nothing to do with the community which enjoys equal rights as Hindus. "I am deeply concerned by the Indian government's decision to notify its controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, particularly the law's potential ramifications on India's Muslim community. Making matters worse is the fact that it is being

Amid criticism of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) from the US and other parts of the globe, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said it is important to put it in the context of the Partition, and underlined that there are a "number of examples" in which many countries have fast-tracked citizenship. During an interaction at the India Today Conclave 2024, he also responded to questions on an Indian national, facing charges in a murder-for-hire plot to kill a Khalistani separatist on American soil and US Ambassador Eric Garcetti's remarks a day earlier on its impact on US-India ties. "You keep using India and Canada seamlessly, I would draw a line there, for a variety of reasons. Most notably that all said and done, American politics has not given that kind of space to violent extremist views and activities which Canada has done. So, I don't think it's fair to the US, to lump them together. I would distinguish between the two," Jaishankar said. The relations betwe

US State Department expressed 'concerned' about the notification of the CAA on March 11, and stated that they would be closely monitoring its implementation in India

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear pleas seeking a direction to the Centre to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 till the pendency of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 before the apex court. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Indian Union Muslim League, that once the citizenship is granted to migrant Hindus, it cannot be taken back and hence the issues needed an early hearing. We will hear this on Tuesday. There are 190 plus cases. All of them will be heard. We will place a full batch with the IAs (Interim applications), the CJI said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said there were 237 petitions and in those pending ones, four interim applications have been filed against the implementation of the rules. The applications were filed

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that the Citizenship Amendment Act was unconstitutional, against human rights, and poses a challenge to the idea of India and accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his party of staying silent on the issue. Vijayan, at a press conference here, alleged that the contentious legislation grants legal validity to religious discrimination, but the Congress was withdrawing from a united front against the CAA. In addition, the CM said, the Congress and its national president Mallikarjun Kharge were yet to comment on the recent notification of the CAA rules. He said that the only reaction from the Congress was that by Jairam Ramesh, party general secretary and in-charge of communications, questioning why the rules were hurriedly notified now more than four years after the legislation was passed by the Parliament. Vijayan contended that despite the lack of support from the Congress, the Kerala government will neither bend nor keep sil