Parliament passes "The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019"

• The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 passed by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, proposes to accord citizenship to illegal Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jains, Parsis and Christian migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. It, naturally, implies that migrants, who identify themselves with any group or community other than those mentioned above, from these countries won't be eligible for citizenship.
• The bill also relaxes the provisions for "Citizenship by naturalisation". The proposed law reduces duration of residency from existing 11 years to just five years for people belonging to the same six religions and three countries.
• The Bill covers six communities namely Hindu, Sikh, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christian migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. As per the Citizenship Act of 1955, an illegal immigrants cannot get citizenship in India.
• The bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants of six communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship. The communities are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians.