Minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered India with proper documentation but whose passports and visas have subsequently expired are eligible for easier citizenship procedures according to the Center, The Hindu reported.
According to a government source, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will modify the citizenship portal to accept expired passports and visas as supporting documents for processing citizenship applications for members of six minority communities comprising of Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Christian, Buddhist, and Jain communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
The MHA’s citizenship portal presently accepts only expired passports from Pakistani and Afghani Hindu and Sikh applicants who entered India before December 31, 2009 as supporting documentation. After allegations of corruption during manual screening surfaced in 2018, all citizenship procedures were transferred online.
Source: The Hindu
