CAA Rules silent on fate of rejected applicants

CAA applicants can be rejected by an empowered committee if their documents fail scrutiny, or if there is any adverse security clearance report; no mention of review procedures in CAA Rules

As applications start coming in through the online citizenship portal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, there is some concern regarding the fate of applicants who are rejected. The law’s rules, notified earlier this month, are silent regarding applications that may be rejected by the empowered committees which have the final authority to accord citizenship under the Act.

Some of the applicants entered the country decades ago and have been living as Indian citizens for many years. However, if their submitted documents now fail the scrutiny of the empowered committee, or if there is an adverse security clearance report about them, their applications for Indian citizenship under the CAA could be rejected.

Review of rejection

The parent law, the Citizenship Act, 1955, says that the applicant may file a review application before the Central government within 30 days and “the decision of the Central Government on such review shall be final.”

According to Aman Wadud, an Assambased lawyer who has worked extensively on citizenship cases in the State, “the review of the rejection is to be done by the same authority, the empowered committee (as per Section 15 A of the Act). In case the review is rejected, a writ petition can be filed before the High Court.”

According to the Rules, the applicant must declare the country they belong to along with their “date of entry into India”, and upload on the citizenship portal any of the nine documents issued by government authorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh to support their claim.

This means that though the CAA was envisaged for undocumented migrants belonging to the six communities from the three neighbouring countries, the rules indicate that documents are essential.