New Delhi: A local priest of a person can issue an eligibility certificate to validate her religious identity, under the Citizenship Amendment Act, The Hindu has reported.
The paper used the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ CAA helpline which was announced on March 21 at the number 1032 “for assistance and information” on the CAA. Applicants were encouraged to make free calls from anywhere in India from 8 am to 8 pm.
The law which was brought in 2019 amidst mass protests was implemented earlier this month – four years later and just before the Lok Sabha polls.
Non-Muslim applicants from India’s neighbouring states of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan can apply for citizenship under this law, which has been widely decried as one that strikes at India’s secular fabric. Applicants need to have entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
The law calls for an eligibility certificate to be produced by an applicant, along with an affidavit, the reasons for which she wishes for citizenship and other documents.
The Hindu notes its experience with the helpline when it called to ask about the eligibility certificate:
“When The Hindu called the helpline on March 26 to seek information on its format, the person attending the call said, “It can be on a blank sheet of paper or on a judicial paper with a stamp value of Rs 10.” When asked who can issue the certificate, The Hindu was told that “any local pujari (priest) can be asked to issue it”.
The Union government has not specified which authority or body can issue this certificate.
A source additionally told the paper that any institution “which has the trust of people can issue the certificate.”
While the final decision on citizenship will be taken by an empowered committee, this local institution can recommend that a person belongs to a particular faith.
The report further notes:
The form says that the person issuing the certificate will have to specify his/her name and address and confirm that the applicant belongs to one of the six communities from the three countries and are known to them. They must certify that “to the best of my knowledge and belief, he/she belongs to Hindu/ Sikh/ Buddhist/Jain/Parsi/Christian community and continues to be a member of the above mentioned community.”
The report quotes Pakistani Hindus in New Delhi as having said that they secured certificates from the Arya Samaj temple and a Shiv Mandir in the Majnu Ka Tilla area.
