Religious minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh applying for Indian citizenship will have to disclose details of any valid or expired passport issued by these countries, the Home Ministry said in a gazette notification issued on Monday.
If the applicant holds a passport, he will have to surrender the document within 15 days of obtaining Indian citizenship, the notification said. Officials familiar with the development said the MHA’s move comes after discovering some cases of applicants holding invalid or expired passports. India does not allow its citizens to hold two passports.
Applicants must declare “that they do not hold a valid and/or expired passport(s) issued by the Government of Pakistan/Afghanistan/Bangladesh,” the notification said. If they have such a document, they will need to provide the passport number, date of issue, place of issue and expiry date and then hand it in within 15 days of approval of their citizenship application.
The notification amends the Citizenship Rules notified in 2024 to enable implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) promulgated in 2019. The CAA expedites the grant of Indian citizenship to people belonging to six minority communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians – who came to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
