Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Labour and Employment, Shobha Karandlaje, has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to intervene promptly regarding Karnataka’s Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC), 2026, citing constitutional and national security concerns. This move comes in response to Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar’s announcement of issuing Permanent Residence Certificates (PRCs) to aid eligible citizens in the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, aiming to prevent eligible voters from being removed from voter lists. Karandlaje expressed in a letter to Shah that the introduction of a ‘Permanent Residence Certificate’ by the Karnataka government contradicts the constitutional framework of one citizenship for all citizens across India, raising legal and national security apprehensions.
She emphasized that the notification’s classification of ‘permanent residents’ lacks a constitutional or statutory basis, violating Article 14 of the Constitution by creating an arbitrary separate class without a legitimate constitutional objective. Karandlaje highlighted the absence of stringent mechanisms to verify Indian citizenship in the notification, potentially enabling illegal immigrants to obtain Permanent Residence Certificates through fraudulent means, leading to the legitimization of illegal residence and hindering the identification and removal of illegal immigrants by the Union government.
Karandlaje underscored the exclusive authority of the Union government over citizenship, foreigners, immigration, and internal security matters as per the Constitution, cautioning that the state-level mechanism of issuing Permanent Residence Certificates could disrupt the uniform citizenship and internal security framework across the country. She further warned that the issuance of such certificates without proper citizenship verification might facilitate the integration of illegal migrants into the state’s administrative system, posing a severe threat to national security and public order.
