Citizenship Act of India

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