E-Paper
Heftier fines among key provisions of immigration bill
The new legislation corrects overlapping and duplicate provisions in prevailing laws and streamlines various process pertaining to the stay, entry and exit of foreigners in India.
The Immigration and Foreigners Bill, 2025, introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Union government on March 11, was passed by Parliament on Wednesday after heated debate in both Houses, with the Centre calling it a historic legislation that is important for strengthening the security of the country and the Opposition calling it an unconstitutional bill that gives arbitrary powers to the authorities.
The new legislation corrects overlapping and duplicate provisions in prevailing laws and streamlines various process pertaining to the stay, entry and exit of foreigners in India.
Once it comes into force after the President’s assent, the new law will replace four existing laws — the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Immigration (Carriers’ Liability) Act, 2000 — that have so far governed various aspects related to foreigners in India and defined the powers of immigration authorities.
Structured into 36 clauses – 26 old and 10 new (compared to 45 provisions in four previous acts) -- distributed across six chapters, the new bill addresses critical aspects of immigration governance, including regulation and registration of foreigners, enforcement mechanisms, categories of visa, functions and powers of immigration authorities, legal procedures for detention and deportation, duties of educational institutes and hospitals as well as maintaining a digital database of foreigners.
Key provisions in the new law
The new bill mandates institutions, including hospitals and universities, as well as owners of private residences to inform the authorities about foreigners staying in their facility. It obligates carriers such as airlines and vessels to remove a passenger denied entry by the immigration officer and provide passenger and crew data to the authorities in advance.
The new law also introduces heftier fines – for instance, ₹5 lakh fine if found entering India without a passport; up to ₹10 lakh for the use of forged documents, and up to ₹3 lakh for overstaying foreigners. The fines previously ranged from ₹10,000 to ₹50,000.
It deals with various categories of visas and has grounds for denying entry to foreigners in India – on grounds of being a threat to the national security, sovereignty, public health or foreign relations. It also gives police officers of the rank of head constable and above powers to arrest foreigners with invalid documents without a warrant; subsequently, the government can deport such foreigners.
The legislation states that a person can be removed (deported) from India for contravention of any of the provisions of this Act or an adverse security report.
The bill has a provision of certain protected or restricted areas in the country where foreigners cannot travel without a special permit or permission granted by an authority specified by the Centre.
A provision in the new law states that when an issue arises pertaining to a person being a foreigner of a particular class or description, the burden of proof shall be on that person.
The legislation also allows government to create a database of passengers coming to India.
Why did the government decide to change the four existing laws?
According to the statement of objects of the new legislation, three out of four existing laws “are not only of pre-Constitution period, but also, they were brought in the extraordinary times of the first and second world wars”. “While there is an underlying continuity and commonality of objectives among the four acts, there are some overlapping provisions among the said acts,” it said.
“The proposed legislation is being enacted to avoid multiplicity and overlapping of laws on the same or related subject and to comply with the Government of India’s policy of simplification of laws,” the statement of objects added.
