CAA rules notified: Here is what the 2019 Bill on Citizenship Amendment Act proposed

The Home Ministry on March 11 notified the Citizenship Amendment Act's (CAA) rules. 

The law paves the way for Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian and Parsi refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to get.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 was passed in Parliament in December 2019. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on December 9 while the Rajya Sabha passed it on December 11.

The Bill proposed to amend the , 1955, and sought to make foreign illegal migrants of certain religious communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship, according to .

Until now, citizenship is regulated by the Citizenship Act, 1955. The Bill specifies that citizenship may be acquired in India through five criteria – by birth in India, by descent, through registration, by naturalisation (extended residence in India), and by incorporation of territory into India. The new law introduces religion as the sixth method to acquire in India.

The Bill proposes that the specified class of illegal migrants from the three countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan - will not be treated as illegal migrants, making them eligible for citizenship. These migrants will become  Indian citizens from the date of their entry into India. All legal proceedings regarding their status as illegal migrants or their citizenship will be closed, the PRS Legislative Research said.

The refugee has to fulfil some qualifications. One of the qualifications is that the person must have resided in India or been in central government service for the last 12 months and at least 11 years of the preceding 14 years. For the specified class of illegal migrants, the number of years of residency has been relaxed to five years.

The