The Supreme Court on Tuesday made an oral observation that individuals seeking citizenship under the provisions of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act must undergo a thorough examination to determine whether the criteria outlined in the law are genuinely met, including whether they belong to persecuted minority communities in neighbouring countries, before any decision on conferring citizenship is taken.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, conveyed that the grant of citizenship to such applicants cannot be presumed as automatic, and would instead depend on the factual accuracy of each claim and the satisfaction of all statutory requirements.
The court was hearing a petition filed by the NGO Aatmadeep, which argued that religious minorities who had fled from countries such as Bangladesh and were residing in West Bengal were anxious that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls might leave them without citizenship status, and therefore vulnerable to exclusion from the democratic process.
The petitioners contended that although they had applied for citizenship under the amended law, the authorities had delayed issuing certificates, and the failure to recognise acknowledgement receipts during the electoral roll revision had created what they described as a constitutional predicament.
During the hearing, the bench observed that while the amended provisions of the CAA introduced a mechanism intended to provide enforceable rights to certain categories of migrants, each applicant would still need to prove essential facts, including whether they belonged to the minority groups identified in the relevant countries, whether they were residents of those countries during the prescribed period, and in what circumstances they had entered India.
The court noted that these determinations were fundamental to the statutory process and could not be bypassed simply because the Act provided a pathway to naturalisation.
The judges further indicated that, when a government enacts a law, a corresponding administrative framework must exist to ensure that the law is implemented in a manner consistent with its stated objectives, and they emphasised that applicants who secure naturalised citizenship through due process may then seek inclusion in the electoral roll under established procedures.