Context

• The Meghalaya High Court has asked the Centre to bring in a law to let people of religious and ethnic minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to be given citizenship without any cut-off year or any questions asked.

Details:

• The HC said that the Centre should have a law allowing Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians, Khasis, Jaintias and Garos from neighbouring countries to live in India “with full dignity without making any cut-off year and be given citizenship without any question or production of any documents.”
• It further added that people may be allowed to come at any point of time to settle in India and the government may provide rehabilitation properly and declare them citizens of India.

About Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016:

• It proposed amendments, amending the Citizenship Act of 1955.
• This bill proposes to provide citizenship rights to migrants belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian religious communities, who have illegally migrated from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan
• Hence these illegal migrants upon citizenship rights would not be subjected to imprisonment or deportation
• Also, these citizens would be able to gain permanent citizenship after six years of residency in India instead of 11 years — as mentioned in the Citizenship Act (1955).
• The registration of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders may get cancelled if they violate any law.