India granted citizenship to its first batch of 14 refugees under the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on Wednesday. The refugees are from the neighboring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The law was originally proposed and passed in 2019 by the Indian Cabinet. CAA amended the Citizenship Act of 1955, specifically Section 2.  The section as amended provides that persons belonging to minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan shall not be treated as illegal migrants. However, the original bill faced heavy criticism for being discriminatory against Muslims, who did not come under the act. Further, while Indian Muslims can lose citizenship if they don’t have the correct documents, the act provided automatic citizenship to non-Muslim refugees after seven years of residence.

Ultimately, the bill led to violent protests in the country, which only ceased after the Indian government issued a stay-at-home order in light of the spread of COVID-19. On March 11, the government officially notified that a set of rules based on the CAA was to be implemented. The original features, including the allegedly discriminatory sub-clause that excludes Muslims from citizenship, remain.

Since implementation, over 300 applications were made by people from the designated countries who entered India up to December 31, 2014. Additionally, this entry was on the basis of religious persecution or the fear of religious persecution. Notably, the named countries are Muslim-majority nations. This fact was given as justification by the government, which stated that Muslims cannot be minorities or victims of persecution in these countries.

The procedure for the application involved processing, scrutiny and granting by state-level administrative bodies, including empowered committees, in the state where the applicant was residing. The applicants are required to provide documents proving their country of origin as being Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh and proof that they entered India before December 31, 2014.

The Supreme Court is yet to review some petitions before it opposing the law. Further, the law has faced further backlash, with Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee saying that she will oppose CAA if it threatens to curtail the rights of Indian citizens.