This is a post written by RK Singh, Ex-Air Force Office who took premature retirement in 1993 and then helped in setting up several factories all over India. He is based at Noida and deeply into social service to help people in general who have legal issues or problems. He is a postgraduate in Physics from Allahabad University and Master’s in Defence Studies, Business Administration & environmental Sciences besides a Degree in Law. He has published 23 research papers and a number of articles. This article is about the citizenship dilemma faced by Indians.
The other day somebody asked me whether I am a citizen of India. My answer was yes but I kept thinking that how am I going to prove that I am a citizen of India as I do not have a certificate of citizenship of India but I do have a variety of documents which give my date and place of birth in India and in some my nationality is listed as Indian.
I have a valid passport, Aadhar card, PAN card, voter ID card, retired Air Force I- card, my Ex-servicemen I-card, revenue receipts, and land/house documents, and a pension account in a PSU bank but these are not proof of my citizenship. Various Supreme Court and High Court judgments have ruled that passport, voter I card, PAN Card, Aadhar card, revenue receipts, and even a bank account including the retired Air Force identity card are not proof of my citizenship. Well, I could not think of anything beyond them and here lies my dilemma.
Looking at article 5 of the Constitution of India which says that a person is a citizen of India if at the time of commencement of Constitution had his domicile in India and was born in the territory of India or at the time of commencement of Constitution of India had his domicile in the territory of India and either of his parents were born in the territory of India or at the commencement of constitution f India the person had his domicile within the territory of India for not less than 5 years immediately preceding the commencement, shall be the citizen of India. No citizenship certificate is issued to a person born in India.
The Citizenship Act 1955 in section 3 lays down conditions for claiming citizenship by birth after the commencement of the Constitution. It says that every person born in India on or after 26 Jan 1950, that is the commencement of Constitution, but before 1 Jul 1987 shall be the citizen of India if born after 1 Jul1987 but before the commencement of citizenship (amendment) act 2003 and either of whose parents is a citizen of India at the time of his birth, if born after the commencement of citizenship (Amendment) act 2003 then either both of his parents are a citizen of India or one of the parents is a citizen of India and the other is not an illegal immigrant at the time of birth, shall be the citizen of India.
It looks simple but the proof of being born in India as accepted is the birth certificate issued by the government under the Registration of Birth and Death Act 1969 or a birth certificate issued by the municipal authorities. Now, most of the senior citizens born before 1 Jul 87 may not have such a birth certificate and this will create a problem. Getting a birth certificate for parents will be more troublesome as most of the births used to take place at home or not registered. Even I cannot produce my birth certificate or of my parents issued by the state or municipal authorities. Most of us have used the date of birth as given in high school certificates or equivalent examinations and this is what has been used in all other documents including entry to Air Force or passport.
Even now as per official records in 2015-2016 only about 63% of children under the age of 5 had their birth registered. This figure now has improved considerably but a large number of births in rural area which do not take place in a hospital, health center or by Asha workers do not get reported. Of course in later stage some date of birth is entered in some document but still the birth remains unregistered thus complicating the citizenship dilemma.
In the USA and most of the countries a valid passport is accepted as proof of citizenship and in other countries, Indian passport is accepted as proof of Indian citizenship except in India itself.
Does it mean that I cannot prove to the satisfaction of the court or authorities that I am a citizen of India? It would appear so. That is the reason India need to have a certificate or a document issued to Indian citizen that they are citizen of this country. National Register of Citizenship could be a step in this direction but the problem will become acute if other documents where the date of birth is mentioned is not accepted and only birth certificate is insisted upon.
