india

Updated: Jan 25, 2019 23:14 IST

The Supreme Court sought Centre’s response Friday on a PIL questioning the government move to grant “automatic citizenship” to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who migrated to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till 2014 end, owing to alleged religious persecution.

A bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to the Tripura government, MEA and Union MHA on a petition filed by NGO Tripura People’s Front through advocate Manish Goswami. It gave three weeks to the authorities to respond.

The petition has sought quashing of the Passport (Entry into India) Amendment Rules, 2015 and The Foreigners (Amendment) Order, 2015 notified on September 7, 2015 that accords automatic citizenship upon migration to India on the ground it was “discriminatory, arbitrary and illegal”. The impugned rules have facilitated “uncontrolled influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to Tripura. This has caused huge demographic changes in the state. “The indigenous people who were once the majority have now become a minority in their own land,” the petition said. It has been contended that religion specifically has never before been identified as the ground for distinguishing between citizens and non-citizens.