Citizenship by birth in India,
· Indian constitution came into force on
26-Jan-1950. It says whosoever reside in territory of India as on 26-Nov-1949
are citizen of India. It means everyone including British or any foreign
national or people migrated from Pakistan after partition are citizen of India.
· Whosoever born in India is a citizen of India
irrespective of nationality of his/her parents.
· Citizenship by birth changed to Citizenship by
descent (partially) on 1-July-1987. One of the parent has to be citizen of
India at the time of birth. This act was amended to accommodate Assam Accord in
1986.
· The law was further changed in 2003 amendment.
Now both the parents have to be Indian citizen the time of birth as on 3-Dec-2004.
However, 1986 amendment was still acceptable but other parent can’t be illegal
immigrant. Thus the citizenship is now by descent only.
Person born outside of India
·
Person born to Indian father after 26-Jan-1950
could get Indian citizenship.
·
This was changed to Indian parents (both mother
and father) on or after 10-Dec-1992
How foreigner (not illegal immigrant) can get Indian
Citizenship:
·
Person of Indian origin resides in India for 7 years
·
Person of Indian origin lives in any other
countries than territory of undivided India
·
Person marries to Indian citizen and lives in
India for 7 years
·
Person has OCI card for last 5 years and resides
in India for last one year.
·
Any other foreigner who resides in India for 12
years.
Bombay high court gave a judgement in 2013 that
birth certificate, passport, or aadhar card are not sufficient to prove one’s
citizenship. Citizenship Act amendment act in 2003 also mandated govt to
construct National Register of Citizen which is not yet implemented. 6-Jan-20
