Immigration Bill allows compounding of offences, replaces Passport Act

This Bill establishes a new legal framework to regulate the entry, exit, and stay of foreigners in India by requiring valid travel documents and visas. It creates a Bureau of Immigration to oversee these functions and grants the Central Government broad powers to control the movement and registration of non-citizens.

The law affects all foreigners (non-citizens of India), carriers (air, water, or land transport entities), keepers of accommodation (hotels, etc.), universities and educational institutions, hospitals and medical institutions, and the Central Government.

• Mandates that no person may enter or exit India without a valid passport or other travel document, and foreigners must also possess a valid visa.
• Establishes a 'Bureau of Immigration' headed by a Commissioner to perform immigration functions under the supervision of the Central Government.
• Requires foreigners to register with a Registration Officer upon arrival in India.
• Grants the Central Government power to issue orders restricting or prohibiting the entry, stay, or departure of specific foreigners or classes of foreigners.
• Imposes obligations on accommodation keepers, universities, and hospitals to furnish particulars of foreigners in their care to authorities.
• Allows Immigration Officers to seize passports or travel documents that are lost, stolen, damaged, forged, or fraudulently obtained.
• Specifies penalties for entering without valid documents, using forged documents, and other contraventions of the Act.
• Grants power to arrest individuals for offences under the Act.

Written from the document by AI, and checked against it. The original below is authoritative.

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