A GIFT OF CITIZENSHIP?

Though the Constitution does not expressly guarantee any fundamental right to citizenship, a rapid survey of all ex parte decisions to decline this important right should be done in a time-bound mode. That is what minimal justice demands

- Prof Upendra Baxi

NO doubt Indian citizens, and even persons within jurisdiction, are entitled to crucially important fundamental and human rights. And it may sound strange, but it is true that our Constitution does not expressly guarantee any fundamental right to citizenship, nor has it yet been frontally declared as a basic human right flowing from the basic structure and essential features of the Constitution.

Indian law and practice concerning citizenship have developed, rightly, as a felt necessity of the times of sub-Continental Partition. The constitutional provisions (Articles 5-11 of the Second Part) have been left largely to the bureaucracy (which has declared a vast empire of administrative discretion) and Parliament which may formally amend the Constitution and laws, almost as it pleases.

It has further the power to make and change the citizenship law. For example, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, by providing Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities-Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christianfrom Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Members from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution in their respective countries, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but be given Indian citizenship.