Citizenship

How is Citizenship Defined?

• Citizenship signifies the relationship between individual and state.
• Like any other modern state, India has two kinds of people—citizens and aliens.Citizens are full members of the Indian State and owe allegiance to it. They enjoy all civil and political rights.
• Citizenship is an idea of exclusion as it excludes non-citizens.
• There are two well-known principles for the grant of citizenship:
  • While ‘jus soli’confers citizenship on the basis of place of birth, ‘jus sanguinis’ gives recognition to blood ties.
  • From the time of the Motilal Nehru Committee (1928),the Indian leadership was in favour of the enlightened concept of jus soli.
  • The racial idea of jus sanguinis was also rejected by the Constituent Assemblyas it was against the Indian ethos.

Constitutional Provisions

• Citizenship is listed in the Union List under the Constitution and thus is under the exclusive jurisdiction of Parliament.
• The Constitution does not define the term ‘citizen’but details of various categories of persons who are entitled to citizenship are given in Part 2 (Articles 5 to 11).
• Unlike other provisions of the Constitution, which came into being on January 26, 1950,these articles were enforced on November 26, 1949 itself, when the Constitution was adopted.
• Article 5:It provided for citizenship on commencement of the Constitution.
  • All those domiciled and born in India were given citizenship.
  • Even those who were domiciled but not born in India, but either of whose parents was born in India,were considered citizens.
  • Anyone who had been an ordinary resident for more than five years,too, was entitled to apply for citizenship.
• Article 6:It provided rights of citizenship of certain persons who have migrated to India from Pakistan.
  • Since Independence was preceded by Partition and migration, Article 6 laid down that anyone who migrated to India before July 19, 1949,would automatically become an Indian citizen if either of his parents or grandparents was born in India.
  • But those who entered India after this date needed to register themselves.
• Article 7:Provided Rights of citizenship of certain migrants to Pakistan.
  • Those who had migrated to Pakistan after March 1, 1947 but subsequently returned on resettlement permits were included within the citizenship net.
  • The law was more sympathetic to those who migrated from Pakistan and called them refugees than to those who, in a state of confusion, were stranded in Pakistan or went there but decided to return soon.
• Article 8:Provided Rights of citizenship of certain persons of Indian origin residing outside India.
  • Any Person of Indian Origin residing outside India who, or either of whose parents or grandparents, was born in India could register himself or herself as an Indian citizen with Indian Diplomatic Mission.
• Article 9:Provided that if any person voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign State will no longer be a citizen of India.
• Article10:It says that every person who is or is deemed to be a citizen of India under any of the foregoing provisions of this Part shall, subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by Parliament, continue to be such citizen.
• Article 11:It empowers Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all matters relating to it.

Acts and Amendments

• The Citizenship Act, 1955 provides for the acquisition and determinationof Indian citizenship.

Acquisition and Determination of Indian Citizenship

• There arefour ways in which Indian citizenship can be acquired: birth, descent, registration and naturalisation. The provisions are listed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
• By Birth:
  • Every person born in India on or after 26.01.1950 but before 01.07.1987 is an Indian citizen irrespective of the nationality of his/her parents.
  • Every person born in India between 01.07.1987 and 02.12.2004 is a citizen of India given either of his/her parents is a citizen of the country at the time of his/her birth.
  • Every person born in India on or after 3.12.2004 is a citizen of the country given both his/her parents are Indians or at least one parent is a citizen and the other is not an illegal migrant at the time of birth.
• By Registration:Citizenship can also be acquired by registration. Some of the mandatory rules are:
  • A person of Indian originwho has been a resident of India for 7 years before applying for registration.
  • A person of Indian origin who is a resident of any country outside undivided India.
  • A person who is married to an Indian citizenand is ordinarily resident for 7 years before applying for registration.
  • Minor childrenof persons who are citizens of India.
• By Descent:
  • A person born outside India on or after January 26, 1950 is a citizen of India by descent if his/her father was a citizen of India by birth.
  • A person born outside India on or after December 10, 1992, but before December 3, 2004 if either of his/her parent was a citizen of India by birth.
  • If a person born outside India or or after December 3, 2004 has to acquire citizenship, his/her parents have to declare that the minor does not hold a passport of another country and his/her birth is registered at an Indian consulate within one year of birth.
• By Naturalisation:
  • A person can acquire citizenship by naturalisation if he/she is ordinarily resident of India for 12 years(throughout 12 months preceding the date of application and 11 years in the aggregate) and fulfils all qualifications in the third schedule of the Citizenship Act.

Termination of Indian Citizenship

Termination of citizenship is possible in three ways according to the Act:

1. Renunciation: If any citizen of India who is also a national of another country renounces his Indian citizenship through a declaration in the prescribed manner, he ceases to be an Indian citizen. When a male person ceases to be a citizen of India, every minor child of his also ceases to be a citizen of India. However, such a child may within one year after attaining full age become an Indian citizen by making a declaration of his intention to resume Indian citizen­ship.
2. Termination: Indian citizenship can be terminated if a citizen knowingly or voluntarily adopts the citizenship of any foreign country.
3. Deprivation: The government of India can deprive a person of his citizenship in some cases. But this is not applicable for all citizens. It is applicable only in the case of citizens who have acquired the citizenship by registration, naturalization, or only by Article 5 Clause (c) (which is citizenship at commencement for a domicile in India and who has ordinarily been a resident of India for not less than 5 years immediately preceding the commencement of the Constitution).

Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) card

1. Is a person of Indian origin and is a citizen of any country except Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China or Afghanistan, or
2. Has held an Indian passport at any other time or is the spouse of a citizen of India or a person of Indian origin.

PIO cardholders can enter India with the multiple entry feature for fifteen years. They do not need a separate visa.

Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Card

• OCI Card is for foreign nationals who were eligible for Indian citizenship on 26th January 1950 or was an Indian citizen on or after that date.
• Citizens of Pakistan and Bangladesh are not eligible for OCI Card. An OCI cardholder does not have voting rights.
• OCI is not dual citizenship. OCI cardholders are not Indian citizens.
• The OCI Card is a multipurpose, multiple entry lifelong visa for visiting India.
• Persons with OCI Cards have equal rights as NRIs in terms of financial, educational, and economic matters. But they cannot acquire agricultural land in India.

Other Important Points:

• The Act does not provide for dual citizenship or dual nationality. It only allows citizenship for a person listed under the provisions above ie: by birth, descent, registration or naturalisation.
• The act has been amended four times — in 1986, 2003, 2005, and 2015.
• Through these amendments Parliament has narrowed down the wider and universal principles of citizenship based on the fact of birth.
• Moreover, the Foreigners Act places a heavy burden on the individual to prove that he/she is not a foreigner.
• 1986 amendment:Unlike the constitutional provision and the original Citizenship Act that gave citizenship on the principle of jus soli to everyone born in India, the 1986 amendment to Section 3 was less inclusive.
  • The amendment has added the condition that those who were born in India on or after January 26, 1950 but before July 1, 1987, shall be Indian citizen.
  • Those born after July 1, 1987 and before December 4, 2003, in addition to one’s own birth in India, can get citizenship only if either of his parents was an Indian citizen at the time of birth.
• 2003 amendment:The amendment made the above condition more stringent, keeping in view infiltration from Bangladesh.
  • Now the law requires that for those born on or after December 4, 2004, in addition to the fact of their own birth, both parents should be Indian citizens or one parent must be Indian citizen and other should not be an illegal migrant.
• With these restrictive amendments, India has almost moved towards the narrow principle of jus sanguinis or blood relationship.
• This lays down that an illegal migrant cannot claim citizenship by naturalisation or registration even if he has been a resident of India for seven years.
• Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019: The amendment proposes to permit members of six communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christiansfrom Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan — to continue to live in India if they entered India before December 31, 2014.
  • It also reduces the requirement for citizenship from 11 years to just 5 years.
  • Two notifications also exempted these migrants from the Passport Act and Foreigners Act.
  • A large number of organisations in Assam protested against this Bill as it may grant citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindu illegal migrants.
  • The justification given for the bill is that Hindus and Buddhists are minorities in Bangladesh, and fled to India to avoid religious persecution, but Muslims are a majority in Bangladesh and so the same cannot be said about them.