Methods of acquiring citizenship in India Upsc

Methods of acquiring citizenship in India

Methods of acquiring citizenship in India

The methods of securing Indian Citizenship are prescribed in the Indian Citizenship act,1955.

As per the Indian Citizenship Act 1955

  1. Citizenship by Birth- Every person born in India on or after January 26,1950 shall be a citizen of India by birth, provided the person father is not an enemy alien or a representative of diplomatic mission.
  2. Citizenship by Descent- A person born outside the Indian territory on or after January 26 ,1950 shall be citizen India by descent if his father or mother ( as amended in 1992) is a citizen of India at the time of birth, provided such birth is registered in any of Indian consolates.
  3. Citizenship by Registration-Many categories of persons, who have not acquired Indian citizenship so far, can acquire citizenship by registering themselves to that effect before the prescribed authority.Such categories of persons are
    1. Persons of Indian origin residing outside the territory of undivided India.
    2. Those persons of India origin who are ordinarily residents in India and have been so resident for 6 months immediately before making application for registration.
    3. Women who are married to citizen bof india.
    4. Children of Indian Citizen and
    5. Adult citizen of UK, Canada, Australia,New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, Cylone, Zimbabwe, Nyasiland and Republic of Ireland.

A person of Indian origin means any person who himself or either of his parents or his grandparents is born in undivided India.

4. Naturalisation– A foreign citizen not covered by any of the above methods, can get Indian Citizenship on the application of Naturalisation to the government of India; with the following conditions:

  • He shall not be citizen of a country, with respect to which Government of India has prohibited Naturalisation;
  • He has surrendered the Citizenship of his country;
  • He has been ordinarily resident in India for atleast one year before making application or has been in the service under the Indian Government.
  • He has been a resident of India for 7 years or has been in the service for four years under the government of India just before the one year period mentioned above.
  • He bears a good moral character
  • He has knowledge of any of the Indian languages mentioned in the Eighth schedule of the constitution of India; and
  • after getting Naturalisation, he intends to reside in India or to serve under the government of India.

The government of India has the discretion to relax any or all the above conditions with respect to those applicants for Naturalisation who have made significant contributions in the field of art, literature, science, philosophy, world peace or human progress.

As amended in 1985, this provision of relaxing the above condition is also applicable with respect to persons applying for Indian citizenship under Assam Agreement.

5. Citizenship by Incorporation of Territory- If any new territory becomes part of India, the Government of India shall specify as to which person of that territory shall be a citizen of India.

Only such specified person shall be a citizen shall be given citizenship of India.

Amendment in the Citizenship Act- Parliament amended the Citizenship Act 1955 in 1992 to make Provisions that the child born outside India shall also be a citizen of India if the mother of such a child is a citizen of India.

Before this amendment, only that child was entitled to get Indian Citizenship whose father was a citizen of India.

Sources

  1. https://ncert.servloci.in/2011/09/q-what-are-provisions-for-securing_5416.html

 

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* * All the Notes in this blog, are referred from Tamil Nadu State Board Books and Samacheer Kalvi Books. Kindly check with the original Tamil Nadu state board books and Ncert Books.
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