New rules for Bangladeshis to get Indian citizenship

From now on, if anyone wants to get Indian citizenship, s/he will have to mandatorily inform the Indian government about the latest status of the passport from his/her country. At the same time, one must submit a written declaration in this regard.

The Union Home Ministry of India has recently issued a new notification in this regard by amending the Citizenship Rules of 2009.

According to the notification, no Bangladeshi, Pakistani or Afghan citizen applying for Indian citizenship should have any valid or expired passport of their country. If an applicant still has a valid passport, then at the time of application, he will have to clearly mention the number, date of issue and validity of that passport.

In addition, the applicant will have to undertake in writing that within 15 days of getting Indian citizenship, he will submit the valid or expired passport in his possession to the Senior Superintendent of the Indian Postal Department.

The notification further said that the Central Government of India has added a new section after Schedule 1-C of the existing rules of 2009.

It is to be noted that this Schedule 1-C is mainly applicable to people of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and want to get citizenship.

Earlier, the Central Government of India had issued the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019. The Act simplified the process of granting citizenship to non-Muslim migrants who had taken refuge in India without documents from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014. In continuation of that, the Ministry of Home Affairs of the country has implemented this new rule regarding passports by amending the Citizenship Rules of 2009.