Unpacking The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019: A Critical Analysis

Ekshita Jain, Christ (Deemed to be University)

ABSTRACT

India is known for its secularism and diversity. But this long-standing principle was questioned when the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed on 11th December 2019, by the BJP government1, and an Amendment brought into the Section 2 of Citizenship Act, 1955 which spoke about “Illegal Migrant” and their citizenship. Thus, through this Amendment the 6 communities, which are, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians which entered India without valid documents and passport from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan were not required to considered illegal migrants and were allowed to acquire Citizenship of India easily by way of reduction in the number of stay years of naturalization. They just had to prove their stay of 5 years and instead of 11 years. This has also seen large scale protests happening all over the country, which resulted in severe injuries and loss of many lives as well. The main opposition arguments were based on the lines of this Amendment being unconstitutional due to the infringement of Article 14 as enshrined under the constitution as well as it being against the principle of secularism as laid down in the preamble of the Constitution.

Keywords: Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, Article 14, Discrimination, Secularism.