INDIAN CITIZENSHIP

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• The Ministry of Home Affairs stated that over 1.6 lakh Indians renounced their Indian citizenship in 2021.
• The numbers marked a sharp increase in comparison to the 85,256 people who gave up their Indian citizenship in the Covid-hit year of 2020, and a somewhat smaller increase over the 1.44 lakh who surrendered their passports in 2019.

Citizenship

• Citizenship is listed in the Union List under the Constitution and thus is under the exclusive jurisdiction of Parliament.
• The Constitution does not define the term ‘citizen’ but details of various categories of persons who are entitled to citizenship are given in Part 2 (Articles 5 to 11).
• The Citizenship Act of 1955 prescribes five ways of acquiring citizenship, viz, birth, descent, registration, naturalisation and incorporation of territory.

Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019:

• The Act amended the law to fast-track citizenship for religious minorities, specifically Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India prior to 2015.
• The requirement for them to stay in India for at least 11 years before applying for Indian citizenship has been reduced to five years.

Ways to Renounce Citizenship in India

Voluntary Renunciation:

• If an Indian citizen wishes, who is of full age and capacity, he can relinquish citizenship of India by his will.
• When a person relinquishes his citizenship, every minor child of that person also loses Indian citizenship. However, when such a child attains the age of 18, he may resume Indian citizenship.

By Termination:

• The Constitution of India provides single citizenship. It means an Indian person can only be a citizen of one country at a time.
• If a person takes the citizenship of another country, then his Indian citizenship ends automatically. However, this provision does not apply when India is busy in war.

Deprivation by Government:

• The Government of India may terminate the citizenship of an Indian citizen if;
• The citizen has disrespected the Constitution.
• Has obtained citizenship by fraud.
• The citizen has unlawfully traded or communicated with the enemy during a war.
• Within 5 years of registration or naturalisation, a citizen has been sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment in any country.
• The citizen has been living outside India for 7 years continuously.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT