Supreme Court: In a civil writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India assailing the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (‘the Act, 1955’), whereby the Indian citizenship gets automatically terminated upon acquisition of citizenship of another country, for being ultra vires to Articles 14, 19, 21, and 25 of the Constitution of India, A.S. Bopanna and Sanjay Kumar, JJ. allowed surrender of the passport to the Indian High Commission, London. Regarding the question of ‘renunciation’ of the citizenship, the Court said that it is subject to the outcome of the petition.
The present petition was filed by a Professor of Law at Oxford University who was naturalized as a British Citizen on 15-11-2023. While renewing the Indian passport, the Indian High Commission, London had stamped a notice on his passport, requiring him to surrender the passport and that the unauthorised possession of the same shall constitute an offence punishable under Indian Passport Act 1967.
The petitioner’s case was that he has not, and does not want to, ‘renounce’ his Indian citizenship voluntarily. His citizenship has been involuntarily and automatically terminated by operation of Section 9 of the Act, 1955 upon acquisition of British Citizenship. He has challenged the ‘involuntary and automatic termination of citizenship’. It was submitted that the ‘renunciation’ of citizenship is different from ‘termination’. Sections 4(1), 4(1A) and 9(1) of the Act, 1955 were challenged for being ultra vires to Articles 14, 19, 21, and 25 of the Constitution.
The petitioner had submitted that he had made attempts to surrender his Indian passport to the Indian High Commission, London from the day British Citizenship was acquired, however, the same was not possible as the Indian High Commission, London does not allow for surrendering of the passport simply, without simultaneously ‘renouncing’ Indian citizenship. Hence, the petitioner sought directions to allow him to surrender his Indian Passport to the Indian High Commission, London or a direction to allow him to submit his Indian Passport to the Registrar General of the Court, without being simultaneously required to renounce his citizenship.
Vide order dated 09-10-2023, the Court issued notice in the petition, and tagged it with another petition.
Source: Press
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the petitioner: Senior Advocate CU Singh, Advocate Amjid Maqbool, AOR Pallavi Pratap
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