CAA Rules open the door to dual citizenship by not requiring renunciation of previous citizenship, anti-CAA petitioners tell SC

Subject: Polity

Section: Constitution

Context:

Written submissions filed by the petitioners ahead of the April 9 hearing of their plea to stay the CAA Rules, said that Section 9 of the Citizenship Act of 1955 and Article 9 of the Constitution both clearly and explicitly prohibit the acquisition of dual citizenship.

CAA and Dual Citizenship:

The Rules of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act do not require foreign applicants to effectively renounce the citizenship of their native country, creating a possibility for dual citizenship.
Creating a possibility for dual citizenship which is directly violative of the Citizenship Act.
Section 9 of the Citizenship Act of 1955 and Article 9 of the Constitution both clearly and explicitly prohibit the acquisition of dual citizenship.
Allowing dual citizenship, one of them being Indian, makes the Rules both “ultra vires and manifestly arbitrary”

About CAA:

The CAA aims to grant fast-tracked Indian citizenship to “illegal migrants” belonging to persecuted members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, or Pakistan who had entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

Exclusions from CAA:

Excluded refugee groups continue to remain illegal migrants, barred from seeking Indian citizenship under any mode.
Even while including Pakistan in the list of countries, it fails to extend protection to the Ahmadiyya community which is one of the most persecuted groups in Pakistan.
Refugees from Myanmar are excluded, though the country was a part of British India till 1935.
The CAA and its Rules exclude Sri Lanka, a neighboring country where Tamil Hindus are under persecution.
It excludes China which is a border country where Buddhists and Uighur Muslims are persecuted.
It excludes Jews who have experienced discrimination over decades,” the petitioners pointed out.
Statement of Objects and Reasons of CAA mentions ‘Partition’ and ‘undivided India’ as the reason for the selection of non-Muslims as a protected class of refugees, the CAA included Afghanistan which was not a part of undivided India.