CDS (II) 2024 General Knowledge · Question 37 of 120

Correct — C, The Sixth Schedule Areas. The exemption is written into the Act itself. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 inserted a new section 6B in the Citizenship Act, 1955, and sub-section (4) of that section says: 'Nothing in this section shall apply to tribal area of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the area covered under "The Inner Line" notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.' Two categories are therefore carved out — the Sixth Schedule tribal areas of those four north-eastern states, and the Inner Line Permit areas, which at the time of the Act covered Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram, with Manipur added by notification in December 2019. Of the four options, only the Sixth Schedule appears in that sentence.

• (a)Ladakh — Ladakh is not named. The exemption is drawn by reference to the Sixth Schedule areas and to the Inner Line, and Ladakh falls under neither.
• (b)Jammu and Kashmir — Jammu and Kashmir is likewise not named in section 6B(4). The carve-outs are north-eastern in scope, drawn from the Sixth Schedule and the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.
• (d)The Fifth Schedule Areas — The Fifth Schedule governs scheduled areas and scheduled tribes in states other than the four north-eastern ones. The Act's exemption clause names the Sixth Schedule, not the Fifth.

The 2019 amendment allows Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before 31 December 2014 to be treated as not illegal migrants and to be granted citizenship on shortened terms. The exemption in section 6B(4) was inserted to protect the areas of the North-East that already have constitutional or regulatory restrictions on settlement — the autonomous tribal areas of the Sixth Schedule and the Inner Line Permit belt.

Do not reason from politics here; read the statute. The exemption exists because those two categories already restrict entry and settlement, and extending an easier route to citizenship there would have cut across that protection. The Sixth Schedule covers tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram through autonomous district and regional councils; the Fifth Schedule covers scheduled areas elsewhere and is not mentioned in the Act at all, which is what makes option (d) the most tempting wrong answer. As of the September 2024 exam the rules under the Act had been notified — the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules were issued in March 2024 — and the exemption for Sixth Schedule and Inner Line areas continued to apply.

• Section 6B(4), inserted by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, exempts the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura included in the Sixth Schedule, and the area covered under 'The Inner Line'.
• The Inner Line is notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873; it applied to Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram, and was extended to Manipur in December 2019.
• The Act covers Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before 31 December 2014.
• The Sixth Schedule provides for autonomous district and regional councils in the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram; the Fifth Schedule governs scheduled areas in other states.
• The rules to operationalise the Act were notified in March 2024, about five months before this paper was set.

• Choosing the Fifth Schedule; it governs scheduled areas outside the four north-eastern states and is not part of the exemption.
• Forgetting the second limb of the exemption — the Inner Line areas — which is as important as the Sixth Schedule limb.
• Assuming the whole of a state is exempt; the exemption attaches to the tribal areas listed in the Sixth Schedule, not to entire states.

As a single-answer item on which areas fall outside a statute, or as a statements item on the Sixth Schedule and the Inner Line.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Inner Line, referred to in the exemption clause of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, is notified under which one of the following?

  • (a)Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873
  • (b)Government of India Act, 1935
  • (c)Sixth Schedule to the Constitution
  • (d)Foreigners Act, 1946

  Answer(a) Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 — the regulation under which Inner Line Permit areas are notified.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India provides for autonomous district councils in the tribal areas of which of the following states?

  • (a)Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram
  • (b)Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Sikkim
  • (c)Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh
  • (d)Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram

  Answer(a) Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram — the four states whose tribal areas the Sixth Schedule governs.