Delay in framing CAA rules by Ministry of Home Affairs

The Ministry of Home Affairs has not yet framed rules for the highly controversial Citizen (Amendment) Act (CAA) passed by the Parliament last year in December, The Hindu reported.

The Act, which evoked massive protests across the country, cannot be implemented or be enforced if the MHA doesn’t formulate rules or give a reason to the Parliament for the delay.

In light of this, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Subordinate Legislation has decided to write to the Ministry on the status of the CAA rules.

Chairman of the committee K. Raghu Rama Krishna Raju told the newspaper, “We will be writing a letter to the MHA as there is no request for extension of time (for notifying the rules), will send them a reminder to give us a status [report]. As per norms, MHA should have framed the rules within six months or seek an extension.”

The MHA initially had said that the Act will be enforced from 10 January.

The much-debated Act provides citizenship on the basis of religion to members of the six non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who had settled in India on or before 31 December 2014.

The Manual on Parliamentary Work states that “statutory rules, regulations and bye-laws will be framed within a period of six months from the date on which the relevant statute came into force.” It also provides for an extension of not more than three months if the committee is unable to do so.

The Home Ministry has not commented on the reason for the delay for formulating the rules.