Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003
Law regarding citizenship rights for migrants to India / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 was passed by the Parliament of India in December 2003,[2] and received presidential assent in January 2004.[3] It is labelled "Act 6 of 2004".[3]
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 | |
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Parliament of India | |
| |
Citation | Act No. 6 of 2004 |
Passed by | Rajya Sabha |
Passed | 18 December 2003 (2003-12-18) |
Passed by | Lok Sabha |
Passed | 22 December 2003 (2003-12-22) |
Assented to | 7 January 2004 (2004-01-07) |
Signed by | President of India |
Effective | 3 December 2004 (2004-12-03)[1] |
Legislative history | |
First chamber: Rajya Sabha | |
Bill title | Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2003 |
Bill citation | Bill No. 39 of 2003 |
Introduced by | L. K. Advani Minister of Home Affairs |
Introduced | 7 May 2003 (2003-05-07) |
Amends | |
Citizenship Act, 1955 | |
Status: In force |
The Act amended The Citizenship Act, 1955 by:
- introducing and defining a notion of "illegal migrant",[4][5][6] who could be jailed or deported.[7]
- making illegal immigrants ineligible for citizenship by registration or by naturalisation,[8][9][10][11]
- disallowing citizenship by birth for children born in India if either parent is an illegal immigrant,[12][13][14] and
- introducing a notion of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) for citizens of other countries who are of Indian origin.[15][16]
The Act also mandated the Government of India to construct and maintain a National Register of Citizens.[17]
Scholar Anupama Roy described this amendment as a "hinge point" from which emerged the two contradictory tendencies represented by the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 (eventually to be an Act in 2019) and the National Register of Citizens.[18] These two developments gave rise to large-scale protests all over India in December 2019.