New Delhi: The Central government has been granted time till April 9 by the Lok Sabha and July 9 by the Rajya Sabha to frame rules under the new citizenship law.
Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said in Lok Sabha that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was notified on December 12, 2019 and came into force from January 10, 2020.
The Committees on Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have granted time up to April 9 and July 9 respectively to frame these rules, he said in a written reply.
Rai said the foreigners covered under this CAA may submit applications for grant of Indian citizenship after appropriate rules are notified by the Central government.
Rules are mandatory for the implementation of any new or amended law and normally framed within six months of its enactment.
The Ministry of Home Affairs was supposed to put together rules for the implementation of the contentious CAA by June 18, 2020 but failed to do so. Bharatiya Janata Party president J.P. Nadda had said in October 2020 that the implementation was delayed because of COVID-19.
The law had triggered widespread protests across the country, as people protested against religion being made the basis for citizenship for the first time in independent India and saw the law as discriminatory against Muslims. Human rights experts from the United Nations and several Western countries speaking out against it.
(With PTI inputs)