i) National Population Register(NPR): It is a list comprising names of every individual or resident of the country who have lived at a present locality for at least the last six months or plan to stay at the current locality for the next 6 months. The list will be prepared at the local (village/sub-town), sub-district, district, state and national level according to the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship Rules, 2003. It will be conducted under the Union Home Ministry and executed by the Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) before the 2021 census and will be carried out between April and September 2020 in all the states and union territories. According to Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, submitting any document (Aadhaar, driving license, voter ID or passport number)and bio-metric to prove their identity is optional but home minister Amit Shah said optional would mean if the resident has the documents, they need to provide the details. Other details that will be required during the exercise of NPR are name, relationship to head of household, gender, date of birth(DOB), place of birth, nationality, father's and mother's name, marital status, spouse's name (if married), occupation, educational qualification, present address of usual residence, duration of stay at present address and permanent address.
ii) National Register of Citizenship (NRC): NRC is a register containing names of all genuine Indian citizens their houses and holdings. As per the following of Supreme Court order in 2013, Assam is the only state to have such a register and the Central government is planning to extend it to other states and create a National Population Register (NPR) throughout the country to identify foreign or illegal nationals. As yet, there is no announcement been made to begin the NRC process.
As per the basic criteria that were followed in Assam for NRC, the resident had to submit a form with any document mentioned in the 'List A' to prove his residency in the state before 25th March 1971, and with any document mentioned in the 'List B' to prove that his/ her ancestors are native residents of the Assam.
a) The documents mentioned in the 'List A' are Electoral rolls upto 25th March 1971, NRC of 1951, Land and tenancy records, Citizenship certificate, Passport, Bank or LIC documents, Permanent Residential Certificate, Educational certificates, and court order records, Refugee Registration Certificate.
b) The documents mentioned in the 'List B' are Land documents, Board or university certificates, Birth certificate, Bank/LIC/post office records, Ration card, Electoral rolls, Other legally acceptable documents and A circle officer or gram panchayat secretary certificate for married women.
Note: If any person does not their names in the NRC list, they need to present their case before foreigners' tribunals and can even move to the high court and, then, the Supreme Court if he loses the case in the foreigners' tribunals.
iii) Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA): It is an act passed by the parliament to provide Indian citizenship to Non-Muslim(belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi faiths ) refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and entered India on or before 31st December 2014 due to religious persecution in the said country. The people applying for Indian citizenship under Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) for migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi faiths from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan will have to provide documents stating that they entered India on or before 31st December 2014 and proofs of their religious beliefs.
Note: NPR and CAA are not yet implemented and Assam is the only state that has done with NPR whereas other state has not yet started or had any go sign from the central government. Everyone is waiting for the Supreme Court (SC) verdict on the cases registered on the CAA bill and to get a clear picture of the form, process, and procedures on the same.
