Centre may make process of granting citizenship under CAA completely online to bypass states

Amid the opposition expressed by several states to Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Centre is planning to make the process of granting citizenship under the new legislation online to bypass the states which have openly said that they will not implement the CAA.

Sources said that the Ministry of Home Affairs is thinking to scrap the current procedure of routing applications for citizenship through the district magistrate and make the whole process online. It is to be noted that Kerala Assembly passed a resolution on Tuesday demanding to scrap of the controversial Act. Sources added that by making the process completely online, the Centre will succeed in ending the intervention of state government at all level.

The MHA officials, however, said that the state governments cannot refuse to implement the CAA as the law has been enacted under the Union List of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution. According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution till December 31, 2014 will be given Indian citizenship.

Besides Kerala, the chief ministers of West Bengal, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had also said that they will not implement in their respective states because the law is "unconstitutional" and has no place in their respective state. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said, "In your (BJP) manifesto, instead of development issues, you have put in promise to divide the country. Why will citizenship be on the basis of religion? I will not accept this. We dare you...You can pass laws in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha forcefully because you have the number. But we will not let you divide the country."

Meanwhile, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said that no state legislature has the power to pass any law with regard to citizenship. "Citizenship, naturalisation and aliens are entry 17 on the Union list. Therefore, it is only the Parliament that has the power to pass any law with regards to citizenship, not any Assembly, including Kerala," Prasad said at a press conference.