In an order issued on Monday, the Union Home Ministry announced that members of minority communities, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, fleeing religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan will be permitted to remain in India without passports or travel documents, provided they arrived in the country on or before December 31, 2024.
This marks a shift from the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which had earlier set the cut-off date at December 31, 2014.
“A person belonging to a minority community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, namely, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian, who were compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution or feat of religious persecution and entered into India on or before the 31″ December, 2024,” read the order issued as part of a series of directives issued by the Union Home Ministry under the newly enacted Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, which came into effect on Monday.
The Immigration and Foreigners Bill, 2025 seeks to empower the Central Government to regulate the entry and exit of individuals into and from India by prescribing requirements such as passports or other travel documents. It further provides for matters relating to foreigners, including visa norms, registration procedures, and other connected or incidental provisions.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), enforced last year, extended eligibility for citizenship only to non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
In contrast, the new directive permits those arriving until December 31, 2024, to stay in India without passports or travel documents, but it does not provide them with an automatic path to citizenship.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of 2019 grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities, Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who fled persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Bangladesh and entered India before December 31, 2014.
The exclusion of Muslims from its provisions, coupled with concerns over the National Register of Citizens (NRC), raised fears of potential disenfranchisement of Muslims in India.
This led to widespread protests across the country, with thousands expressing concerns over discrimination and the erosion of India’s secular principles.
