Activists taking out rally in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (left) and protesters voicing opposition to the CAA (right) while debate over speculated National Register of Citizens (NRC) continues. (Photos: PTI)

Partition of India is the source for many emotive problems of India. One of them is the issue of illegal immigrants. It has been an issue in Assam even before the Partition happened in 1947. By 1951, a National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam was already in the works of the government.

The issue of illegal immigrants has continued to supply fodder for politics in and outside Assam. First, it was the Congress that in pursuit of power called for detection and deportation of illegal immigrants which required preparation of an NRC. Later, the Left parties, the BJP and even the Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister, raised the issue and led campaigns against illegal immigrants.

The BJP in past three decades has been the most vocal political entity campaigning against illegal immigrants and for early preparation of nationwide NRC. The campaign against illegal immigrants and for nationwide NRC has now got mixed with the Hindutva agenda.

Recent emphasis of the BJP on NRC has created furore. During campaign for Lok Sabha election, BJP president Amit Shah, now also the Union home minister, repeatedly said the government would bring a citizenship amendment law to give citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists if they came to India from Bangladesh and Pakistan. And, this law would be followed up by an NRC, Shah would say, to detect and deport every infiltrator from the country.

Even during debate on the citizenship amendment law in the Winter Session of Parliament, Amit Shah reiterated that an NRC would be brought in for detection and deportation of infiltrators. This led to speculation that a new law will be enacted with many political parties and civil rights groups alleging that this was a scheme to target Muslims.

Large-scale protests were seen in many parts of the country with states ruled by the BJP being the worst hit over the Citizenship Amendment Act and proposed NRC. Union Home Minister Amit Shah tried to assure people that no bonafide citizen would be left out of the NRC when it comes out.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi later termed speculation about a nationwide NRC false propaganda peddled by some political parties and people with vested interests. He asserted that there was no discussion in the government over a nationwide NRC at present.

NRC LEGAL FRAMEWORK EXISTS

Any government at the Centre may not need to bring a separate legislation for carrying out NRC exercise. The legal framework for NRC is laid down in the Citizenship Act of 1955 as amended in 2004. This was done through the Citizenship Amendment Act 2003 brought by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in the run up to 2004 Lok Sabha election.

The 2004 amendment to the Citizenship Act inserted Section 14A that provided for conducting headcount of Indian citizens and preparation of the NRC. The rules notified later under the 2004 amendment law provide for the procedures to be followed for the NRC preparation.

Section 14A provides for issue of National Identity cards to Indian citizens. An NRC is to be the base for the issue of National Identity Cards. And, the NRC under Citizenship Amendment Act 2003 may be a sub-part of the NPR.

NRC MODALITIES IN CITIZENSHIP 2003 RULES

There has been no decision on issuing National Identity Cards as mandated under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003.

NPR is an exercise conducted on house-listing basis collecting demographic and biometric data. For a person enrolled under Aadhaar of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) need not give biometric data for NPR.

Once collected, the Citizenship Rules 2003 say, the particulars of every family and individual found in the NPR shall be verified and scrutinized by the local registrar at village, ward, sub-district or district level.

HOW TO DETECT INFILTRATOR

The 2003 Rules spell out how to operationalise registration of citizens and issue of National Identity Cards to them.

During the process of verification of NPR data of individuals for identification of citizens, the local registrar is required to identify those whose citizenship is doubtful and enter a comment recommending further inquiry.

Such doubtful citizens or their families will be informed about their citizenship status. They will have the opportunity of being heard by the sub-district or taluk Registrar of Citizen Registration. Once the process at the registrar level completes, a final decision will be made for inclusion or exclusion of such individuals or families. The decision is to be made within 90 days.

However, the draft prepared by the local register is not the final list of Indian citizens. The draft NRC will be published to invite objections or claims for inclusion or corrections.

Any objection or request for inclusion must be made within 30 days of the publication of the draft. The sub-district or taluk registrar shall summarily dispose of the objections within 90 days. Thereafter, the entries in the Local Register will be transferred to the National Registrar.

Those excluded from the NRC draft can appeal to the district registrar within 30 days. The district registrar is bound to dispose of the appeal within 90 days.

In case, the appeal succeeds, the names of those concerned would be added to the NRIC.

CURRENT NPR-NRC STATUS

The government has not notified a date for nationwide NRC exercise. It is also not yet clear which documents would be accepted as proof of citizenship.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has though emphasized that documents would be common for all citizens. It is also being said that those who don’t have documentary proof will have the option of proving their citizenship through community witness.

Now comes the question of support of the state governments. Some state governments only those led by non-BJP/non-NDA parties have halted the NPR process. This came in the backdrop of protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019.

The new law seeks to offer citizenship to illegal immigrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan if they fled their parent countries to escape religious persecution. Protesters claim that the law discriminates against Muslims.

However, the decision by state governments to halt NPR process -- indicating a consequent delay in Census exercise -- may not pass the test of the law if the Centre pushes hard either in the case of NPR or nationwide NRC exercise.

WHY CENTRE HAS AN UPPER HAND

The Census Act of 1948 was amended in 1994 inserting Section 4A. This makes it binding on the state governments to support the Census exercise launched the Centre.

Rule 5 of the Citizenship Rules 2003 makes it binding on state governments and local authorities to assist the Registrar General of Citizen Registration or any person authorized by him in this behalf for preparation of NPR database.

Further, it is obligatory on part of citizens to assist in the preparation of the National Register of Citizens, according to the Citizenship Rules.

To sum up, the government does not need a new legal sanction to carry out a nationwide NRC exercise unless it wants to make some specific changes to the existing Citizenship Act, which has already been amended half-a-dozen times 1987, 1992, 2004, 2005, 2015 and 2019.

However, it is not yet clear if the Modi government plans to bring a fresh legislation as some Opposition parties have said or take cue from the Citizenship Amendment Act 2003. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, however, denied a nationwide NRC being discussed in the government. The BJP though had mentioned it in its manifesto for 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.