As per an order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the committees will be headed by officers not below the rank of deputy secretary to the central government and these officers will be nominated by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. Two such empowered committees have already been functioning and due to the large number of CAA applications, another two were notified on Monday, explained officials. Each empowered committee will comprise an officer in the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau not below the rank of under-secretary to the central government, an officer not below rank of under-secretary to government to be nominated by jurisdictional Foreigners Regional Registration Officer concerned, an officer not below rank of under-secretary to central government to be nominated by State Informatics Officer of National Informatics Centre of West Bengal.
Further, the committee will consist of the postmaster general of West Bengal, or a postal officer nominated by the postmaster general not below the rank of under-secretary to the central government.
In addition, certain officials will participate as invitees to the empowered committees. These include a representative from the office of the Principal Secretary (Home) or the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) of the West Bengal government and a representative of the jurisdictional Divisional Railway Manager of the Railways.
Section 6B was inserted into the Citizenship Act, 1955, through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA). The amendment provides a pathway to Indian citizenship for members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who migrated to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution.
