The Centre on Monday told theSupreme Courtthat its notification of May 28 delegating powers to collectors of some of districts to grant to members of the minority community from Afghanistan,Pakistanand Bangladesh was not related to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and that such exercise had been done earlier too since 2006.
By the notification, the Centre has delegated power to grant citizenship in such cases to the collectors of 13 more districts Morbi, Rajkot, Patan and Vadodara in Gujarat; Jalore, Udaipur, Pali, Barmer and Sirohi in Rajasthan; Durg and Balodabazar in Chhattisgarh; Faridabad in Haryana; and Jalandhar inPunjaband to the Home secretaries ofHaryanaand Punjab. Now, district collectors of 29 districts and home secretaries of 9 states can exercise such powers.