New Delhi: The joint committee of Parliamentarians looking into the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which has been twice granted extension, has sought another extension, official sources said on Thursday. Constituted in August, 2016, the committee was supposed to submit its report to the Parliament during the ongoing monsoon session.
However, as per sources, it will be able to do so only by the winter session. The committee was constituted in August, 2016. Its initial deadline was the winter session of 2016.
It has sought fresh extension citing its plan to undertake study visits to states including Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Tripura, Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh, where “sizeable Hindu migrants from Bangladesh are residing”.
The original Citizenship Act, passed in 1955, defines the concept of Indian citizenship and lists out ways to acquire the same, explicitly denying citizenship to all undocumented migrants.
An illegal migrant, the Act states, “is a foreigner who enters India without a valid passport or travel documents or stays beyond the permitted time”
A key amendment in the new bill, however, seeks to grant citizenship to people without valid documents from minority communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India.
“Further, the detailed, complete written replies to the list of points in connection with examination of the Bill are still awaited from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“It is thus felt that there is a need for seeking further extension of time for presentation of the report on the Bill up to the first day of the last week of the Winter Session of Parliament,” sources said.
The Joint Committee of Parliament looking into the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 had earlier sought an extention in March. (PTI)
