On a humid March afternoon in 2024, a quiet government website in India flipped a switch and years of debate suddenly had rules. Within weeks, a handful of refugees who had waited most of their lives for a country to call home walked out of government offices holding fresh citizenship certificates. However you feel about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, this is the moment it truly started operating on the ground.
what the CAA actually does
The CAA, passed in December 2019, fast-tracks Indian citizenship for specific religious minorities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, citing persecution. These groups are no longer treated as “illegal migrants” under the Citizenship Act for the purpose of naturalisation, and their required residence period is effectively reduced (the underlying amendment allows this cohort to qualify on a five-year track instead of the usual eleven).
Crucially, the law does not apply everywhere. Areas under the Sixth Schedule (autonomous tribal regions in parts of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura) and regions covered by the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system are exempt.
How it moved from paper to practice
For more than four years after passage, the CAA couldn’t be implemented because the rules weren’t framed. That changed on March 11, 2024, when the Union Home Ministry notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, opening an online process to apply. The Rules set up District Level Committees to verify applicants and State-level Empowered Committees to grant citizenship.May 15, 2024: The first 14 citizenship certificates were handed over in New Delhi; the Home Ministry also said additional certificates were issued digitally.
- August 18, 2024: The Home Minister publicly distributed 188 certificates in Ahmedabad, signalling wider roll-out.
Applicants now file through the official citizenship portal; the process is designed to be fully online per the notified Rules and government service listing.
The legal status today
Multiple challenges to the CAA’s constitutionality remain pending before the Supreme Court. Importantly, the Court has not stayed the law or the 2024 Rules. In March 2024, the Court declined an interim stay and set filing timelines, allowing implementation to proceed while it hears the cases. As of August 20, 2025, the matter is still pending.
What changed on the ground (2024–2025)
- Certificates issued: After the March 2024 notification, issuance began in Delhi and later in states like Gujarat (public distributions noted above). Government year-end notes also record that the process commenced in other states, including West Bengal. (Granular, nationwide totals aren’t centrally published; RTI correspondence has indicated no consolidated count is maintained.)
- Online, committee-based workflow: District committees verify claims; empowered state committees sign certificates (often digitally signed), per the official Rules.
- Regional sensitivities: The Northeast continues to see political mobilisation. In Assam, civil society groups have opposed a proposed Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, arguing it intersects with long-standing anxieties around citizenship even as the Election Commission plans broader revisions. These debates are separate from CAA processing but reflect how identity and roles are politically charged in the region.
Common misconceptions, clarified
- Does the CAA take away anyone’s citizenship? No. The law adds a pathway; it does not provide for deprivation of citizenship. The Union has repeatedly stated this before the Supreme Court during the 2024 hearings.
- Is it linked to a nationwide NRC? The CAA’s implementation and any hypothetical nationwide NRC are distinct issues. The current Rules deal only with the CAA’s defined beneficiary groups and their application
- Is it in force everywhere? No. Sixth Sions. (Assam’s NRC is a separate, earlier exercise.) Schedule and ILP areas are exempt.
Who can apply and how
Eligible: Members of the six specified communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Bangladesh who entered India on/before December 31, 2014 and seek naturalisation on the ground of religious persecution (or fear thereof).
Not eligible: Anyone outside those communities/countries or who entered after the cutoff date; residents of exempted regions; persons with serious criminal/terror links, etc., remain ineligible under existing law.
Process:
- Apply on the official citizenship portal under the CAA category;
- District Level Committee interaction/verification;
- Empowered Committee decision and certificate issuance (often digital)
Why it remains sensitive
Supporters frame the CAA as a humanitarian correction for persecuted minorities in three neighbouring Islamic republics. Opponents argue it discriminates on religious lines and could, in practice, alter demographic balances in states like Assam, despite exemptions. These are the issues the Supreme Court must ultimately resolve. Until then, implementation continues under the notified Rules.
