Centre releases five clauses to acquire Indian citizenship
Amid the raging protests across the country, including scores of violent incidents, against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Union Home Ministry on Friday released the five clauses under the Citizenship Act to acquire Indian citizenship.
According to the Citizenship Act, 1955, under the first clause, citizenship by birth under Article 5 of the Constitution provides that any person who was domiciled in India on January 26, 1950 or who was born in the territory of India is a citizen of India, the notification said.
Anyone "either of whose parents was born in the territory of India, or any person born in India on or after January 26, 1950, but before July 1, 1987 is a citizen of India by birth," said the government's notification.
Any person born in India between July 1, 1987 and December 3, 2004, and either of whose parents is a citizen of India is also a citizen of India by birth.
For persons born after December 3, 2004, the notification said: "Both whose parents are citizens of India or one of them isn't an illegal immigrant at the time of his birth and the other is a citizen of India shall also be a citizen of India by birth."
For the second of citizenship by descent, "a person born outside India on or after January 26, 1950, but before December 10, 1992, shall be citizen of India by descent, if his father was a citizen of India at the time of birth".
The criteria for citizenship by registration states that a person of Indian origin who is ordinarily resident in India for seven years before making an application for registration is eligible to be registered as a citizen of India.
"Minor children of persons who are citizens of India are eligible to be registered as a citizen of India, and a person of full age and capacity whose parents are registered as citizens of India is eligible to be registered as a citizen of India," says the rules under citizenship by registration.
Citizenship by naturalisation provides that any person of full age and capacity on fulfilling the residency requirement of 12 years is eligible for grant of a certificate of naturalisation.
Finally, the provision for citizenship by incorporation of territory says, "if any new territory becomes part of India, the government shall specify the persons who among the people of the territory shall be the citizen of India. Such persons become the citizen of India from the notified date. This happened in the case of Goa, Daman & Diu, Sikkim and many Bangladeshi enclaves which became part of India in 2014."
