CAA rules likely to be issued before poll code

New Delhi, February 27

The rules for the implementation of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, for fast-tracking citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are likely to be issued before the model code of conduct for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections comes into effect.

The model code gets enforced immediately after the election schedule is announced, which is likely in the next fortnight. The rules for the CAA are likely to be issued before the model code comes into effect, sources privy to the development said. When the rules for the CAA are issued, the Modi government will start granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014. The CAA was passed in December 2019 and it got the President’s assent subsequently.