LOK SABHA REPORT OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE CITIZENSHIP (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2016 (SIXTEENTH LOK SABHA) LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT NEW DELHI January, 2019/PAUSHA 1940(Saka) 1 LOK SABHA REPORT OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE CITIZENSHIP (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2016 (SIXTEENTH LOK SABHA) PRESENTED TO LOK SABHA ON 7 JANUARY, 2019 LAID IN RAJYA SABHA ON 7 JANUARY, 2019 LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT 2 NEW DELHI January, 2019/PAUSHA 1940(Saka) CONTENTS Page Nos. COMPOSITION OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE (I) INTRODUCTION (iii) REPORT 1-77 BILL AS REPORTED BY JOINT COMMITTEE 78-79 APPENDICES I. Motion in Lok Sabha for Reference of the Bill 80 to the Joint Committee II. Motion in Rajya Sabha for Reference of the Bill 81 to the Joint Committee III. Motion regarding Extension of Time 82 - 82A IV. Notes of Dissent 83 - 127 V. Minutes of the Sittings of the Joint Committee 128 - 190 VI. List of Stakeholders/Organisations/Associations/ 191 - 433 Individuals from whom Memoranda were received in response to the Press Communique issued on 17.09.2016. VII. List of Stakeholders/Public representatives from 434 - 435 whom Memoranda were received through various other sources viz. Ministry of Home Affairs, Prime Minister's Office, President's Secretariat etc. VIII. List of Non-official witnesses who tendered oral 436 - 440 evidence before the Committee 3 COMPOSITION OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE CITIZENSHIP (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2016 *Shri Rajendra Agrawal - CHAIRPERSON MEMBERS Lok Sabha 2. Shri Ramen Deka 3. Shri Pralhad Venkatesh Joshi 4. Shri Kamakhya Prasad Tasa 5. Shri Gopal Chinayya Shetty 6. Shri Om Birla 7. Shri Jugal Kishore Sharma 8. Dr. Kirit P. Solanki 9. Shri Sunil Kumar Singh 10. Smt. Meenakashi Lekhi 11. Shri Sushil Kumar Singh 12. Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury 13. Km. Sushmita Dev 14. Dr. P. Venugopal 15. Prof. Saugata Roy 16. Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab 17. Shri K. Ram Mohan Naidu 18. Shri Anandrao Adsul 19. Shri B. Vinod Kumar 20. Shri Mohammad Salim Rajya Sabha 21. Dr. Vinay P. Sahasrabuddhe 22. Shri Narayan Lal Panchariya 23. Shri P. Bhattacharya 24. Shri Bhubaneswar Kalita 25. Shri Javed Ali Khan 26. Shri Derek O’Brien 27. Vacant# 28. Shri Prasanna Acharya 29. Shri Satish Chandra Misra 30. Shri Swapan Dasgupta * was appointed as Chairperson w.e.f. 25 December, 2017 vice Dr. Satyapal Singh the then Chairperson was appointed as the Minister in the Union Cabinet. # vacancy occurred vice Shri Harivansh elected as Deputy Chairman Rajya Sabha on 9 August, 2018. 4 SECRETARIAT 1. Smt. Kalpana Sharma - Joint Secretary 2. Shri D. R. Mohanty - Additional Director 3. Smt Geeta Parmar - Additional Director 4. Shri Rahul Singh - Deputy Secretary 5. Ms. Pooja Kirthwal - Sr. Executive Assistant REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS 1. Shri Rajiv Gauba, Home Secretary 2. Shri B.R. Sharma, Special Secretary (BM&F) 3. Shri Sailesh, Secretary (OL) and Registrar General of India 4. Shri Anil Malik, Joint Secretary (Foreigners) 5. Shri Satyendra Garg, Joint Secretary (North East) REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MINISTRY OF LAW & JUSTICE A. (LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT) 1. Shri G. Narayana Raju, Secretary 2. Shri K. Biswal, Special Secretary 3. Shri Y.S. Rao, Deputy Legislative Counsel B. (DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS) 1. Shri Alok Shrivastava, Secretary 2. Shri S. R. Mishra, Additional Secretary 3. Dr. Anju Rana Rathi, JS&LA REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS 1. Shri Vijay Gokhale, Foreign Secretary 2. Shri Manpreet Vohra, Additional Secretary (CPV&CT) 3. Shri Amit Narang, Joint Secretary (CPV & CNV&I) 5 INTRODUCTION I, the Chairperson of the Joint Committee to which the Bill published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary Part-II, Section 2, dated 15 July, 2016 titled ‘The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016’ was referred, having been authorised to submit the Report on their behalf, present this Report, with the Bill as amended by the Committee annexed thereto. 2. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in Lok Sabha on the 19 July, 2016. The motion for reference of the Bill to a Joint Committee of both the Houses of Parliament was moved in Lok Sabha by Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of Home Affairs on the 11 August, 2016 (Appendix I). The Rajya Sabha concurred to the said motion on the 12 August, 2016 (Appendix II). 4. The Report of the Joint Committee was to be presented by the first day of the last week of the Winter Session (2016). The Committee were granted extension of time on six occasions (Appendix III), starting from the first day of the last week of Budget Session (2017) upto the first day of the last week of Winter Session (2018) for presentation of the Report. 5. Keeping in view the wide ranging implications of the Bill and interest of various stakeholders, the Committee decided to invite the views/ suggestions of the Organisations/Associations/Public at large and other stakeholders. Accordingly, a Press Communiqué was issued in response to which more than 9000 Memoranda were received. 6. The Committee undertook three Study Visits, viz. to Jodhpur from 18 to 20 December, 2016, to Ahmedabad & Rajkot from 18 to 20 April, 2017 and to Guwahati, Silchar & Shillong from 7 to 11 May, 2018 and held informal discussions there with Migrants/NGOs/Public representatives and other Stakeholders to obtain first hand knowledge at the field level. 7. The Committee held 14 sittings in all. 8. The Committee took evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Law & Justice (Department of Legal Affairs and Legislative Department) and Ministry of External Affairs at their sittings held on 21 September, 2016, 3 October, 2016, 22 March, 2017, 3 January, 2018 and 23 October, 2018 on the various provisions of the Bill. 9. The Committee heard the views of non-officials witnesses on the Bill at their sittings held on 13 October, 2016, 25 October, 2016, 19 July, 2017 and 17 April, 2018. The Committee also heard the views of the representatives of the State Governments on 26 October, 2016. The representatives of the Ministries cited above including the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare were also present during the sittings. 6 10. The Committee considered the Bill Clause by Clause at their sittings held on 20 November, 2018, 27 November, 2018 and 31 December, 2018. The Bill as reported by the Committee is appended at the Report. 11. The Committee considered and adopted the Report at their sitting held on 3 January, 2019 and authorized the Chairperson to present the Report on their behalf. 12. As a number of pertinent issues were involved in the Amendments proposed in the Bill, the Committee have extensively dealt with them and given their observations/recommendations, suggestions and changes, wherever required in the Bill, in the succeeding paragraphs. Dated: 4th January, 2019 RAJENDRA AGRAWAL Place: New Delhi CHAIRPERSON JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE CITIZENSHIP (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2016 7 I. INTRODUCTORY Citizenship is the legal right to belong to a particular country. In other words, citizenship bestows upon individuals membership in a national political community. According to Aristotle "The State is a compound made of citizens; and this compels us to consider who should properly be called a citizen and what a citizen really is. The nature of Citizenship like that of the State, is a question which is often disputed; there is no general agreement on a single definition; the man who is a citizen in democracy is often not one in an oligarchy." National citizenship in a democracy matters because the right to vote and run for office in national elections is extremely consequential in all countries. Non-citizens, even if they are permanent residents and long-time workers, have no opportunity to participate in the democratic process at the national level. Eventual integration of immigrants into the host society makes national citizenship much more significant because the different possibilities to acquire citizenship will have lasting and varied implications for the long-term integration of immigrants. Further, the ultimate resolution of the demographic problem depends on how countries define and enforce their respective citizenship policies. In short, national citizenship remains an essential and enduring feature of modern life in terms of politics and elections, welfare state benefits, all round integration etc. 1.2 Liberal democracies are based on the universal language of fundamental human rights along with the free association and participation of 'the people', yet they also delineate clear and enforceable boundaries, both in terms of territory and political membership. In essence, the paradox is that liberal democracies are internally inclusive while remaining externally exclusive. The right of citizenship so far as India is concerned had started only with the advent of independence. During the British Rule, Indians virtually had no such right. They were governed normally by the British Citizenship and Alien Rights Act of 1914. That Act was modified later and it was repealed in 1948. In fact, Indians did not have any law of citizenship. Only an act of naturalization was passed in 1928 which was meant more for the benefit of persons coming from abroad. Apart from that, no law relating to registration or naturalization or otherwise was adopted in India. India, had to face the same dilemma even after the Constitution of 8 India was adopted and enacted by the Constituent Assembly on the twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, as there was no law prescribing acquisition and termination of citizenship and related matters. 1.3 Part II of the Constitution relates to Citizenship of India. Articles 5 to 9 of the Constitution determine who are Indian citizens at the commencement of the Constitution. Article 10 provides for their continuance as such citizens subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by Parliament.