Guwahati, Dec 14: Two persons, including a woman, have been granted Indian citizenship under the CAA, taking the count of people receiving it under the Act to four in Assam, their lawyer said.
For the first time, a woman was granted citizenship under the Act in the northeastern state, senior advocate Dharmananda Deb, who had also been a member of the Foreigners’ Tribunal in Silchar, said.
The 40-year-old woman had entered India from Bangladesh in 2007 and had been living in Sribhumi, while the 61-year-old man, who came to the country in 1975, had been living in Cachar, he said.
The Ministry of Home Affairs issued the certificates on Friday, and the citizenship is deemed effective from the day both individuals entered India, Deb said, while declining to disclose their names, citing possible social harassment.
He said the woman, who hails from Bangladesh’s Chittagong, had accompanied a family member for treatment at Silchar Medical College and Hospital. She met a man from Sribhumi, married him, gave birth to a son and stayed back.
She had applied for citizenship after the CAA rules were notified last year, Deb said.
Her first application, submitted in July last year, was rejected due to confusion caused by the delimitation exercise before the Lok Sabha elections. Badarpur, where she now lives, was partially moved from Sribhumi to Cachar, creating uncertainty over the jurisdiction of her area.
The lawyer had reapplied and her case was finally approved.
Deb said she is the first woman in Assam to receive citizenship under the CAA, and notably the first in the state to be granted citizenship through the registration route.
“This was granted under Section 5(1)(c), read with Section 6B of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which allows a person married to an Indian citizen to register as an Indian citizen after residing in India for seven years,” he explained.
The second beneficiary, a resident of Silchar town, came to India at the age of 11 from Bangladesh’s Moulvibazar district, and had also married locally, and started a family.
He received citizenship through the naturalisation process.
Assam now has four individuals who entered India after the 1971 cut-off and have been granted citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Deb said he has assisted around 25 applicants over the last 18 months, but many applications were rejected or remain pending.
Around 40 people have so far applied for citizenship in the state since the rules were notified last year.
The Act enables Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Parsi immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India between March 25, 1971 and December 31, 2014 to apply for citizenship.
The CAA, passed on December 11, 2019, had sparked statewide protests in Assam, leading to the death of five persons in the violence.
Assam has nearly two lakh individuals identified as doubtful citizens, but only a small number have applied under the CAA so far.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has claimed that most Hindus migrated to Assam from Bangladesh before the cut-off date of 1971. (PTI)
