Challenge to passport rule amendments to be kept pending until Parliament decides on Citizenship Bill: SC

The petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Passport (Entry into India) Amendment Rules, 2015, The Foreigners (Amendment) Order, 2015, and a government order dated December 23, 2016 has been kept pending by the Supreme Court until Parliament decides on the Citizenship Bill, 2016.

The impugned subordinate legislation exempts persons belonging to minority communities in Bangladesh and Pakistan, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – who were compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution on or before December 31, 2014 – from the application of provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946.

Such persons may be without valid documents or with expired documents, including passport or other travel documents, as exempted under the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 by the impugned subordinate legislation.

The petition filed by the Forum against Citizenship Act Amendment Bill contends that these subordinate legislations have diluted the meaning of “illegal migrant” as defined in Section 2(b) of The Citizenship Act, 1955, which is not permissible in law.

It also seeks a direction to be issued to the Central government to constitute a National Immigration Commission or any other appropriate body to frame a National Immigration Policy and a National Refugee Policy.

When the matter came up for hearing today, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that the Citizenship Amendment Bill is pending in Parliament. If the Bill becomes an Act, the petition will become infructuous, he said.

“The Bill has been passed by Lok Sabha and has not been passed by Rajya Sabha. If the Bill is passed in Parliament, will anything survive in this matter?“, he asked.

He then said that the best option now is to keep the matter pending till Parliament decides on the Bill.

“If the Bill is not passed by Rajya Sabha, then this petition can be entertained“, he said.

The court then passed an order granting liberty to the petitioner to mention the matter after the Citizenship Act Amendment Bill pending before the Rajya Sabha, reaches its finality.

Senior Advocate Kamal Nayan Chaudhary and advocate Manish Goswami represented the petitioner.

Read the order below.