Indian Citizenship Act | Acquisition and Loss of Citizenship | Sec 3 - 10 - YouTube

Hey everybody this is Priya! and you are watching Finology Legal

In the previous we have learnt that the Citizenship issue in India has been discussed in two places

First in Constitution of India and in Citizenship act

In our constitution, the citizenship issue has been discussed from Article no.5 to 11

But this whole part answers only 1 question, that is on 26 January 1950 who all will be known as Indian citizens

Apart from that one question all other questions are discussed in The Citizenship Act

And recognizing by Marks perspective or exam purpose, for the citizenship issue

The Citizenship Act is more important than the Constitution for exam purpose

So in today's video we will cover this Act

Now we will see what this Citizenship act does ?

So basically this act tells about 5 ways of Acquisition and 3 ways of Loss

The 5 ways of Acquisition is like (Varun Dhavan's movie Badrinath ki Dulhania) that is "BDRIN"

BDRIN - Birth, Descent, Registration, Incorporation of territory and Naturalization

And the 3 ways of Loss are - Renunciation, Termination and Deprivaiton

these 3 ways of loss are very simple and easy, the important part is the 5 ways of Acquisition

and the process of Naturalisation is very important , so lets get started with this

And if you feel that the Amendment Act of 2019 is only important then it is not like that

Citizenship amendment act incorporates many and major amendment acts

in which very important acts of year 1986, 1992 2003, and 2005 amendment acts

Quickly we will see that what was so special about these amendment acts

So before 1986 the act says that if any person take birth in India he will be liable to get Indian Citizenship

But 1986 act changed this provision and it said that

the persons birth should be in India but as well as his/her one parent should be an Indian to acquire Indian Citizenship

Before 1992 it was like that if any body wants Indian Citizenship

then his/her father should be an Indian citizen and mother has no role in it

Amendment act of 1992 ended this discrimination against women

and said that child's either of the parent should be an Indian Citizen it could be mother or it could be father

And the act of 2003, the definition of "Illegal Immigrant" was introduced in this act only

Because of this term "Illegal Immigrant", the amendment act of 2019 was in mess

The amendment act of 2003 stopped the Illegal Immigrants acquiring Indian Citizenship by the process of registrantion and naturalization

we will know about this soon in this video

And the act of 2005 known for its major changes in the provision of OCI (Overseas Citizen of India)

we will know about the importance of these all amendment acts through section wise . So lets start

The first mode of Acquisition is "Citizenship by Birth" which is section 3

this section offers citizenship on the basis of birth

and the very important ingredient of this section is that your birth should take place in India

so now we will see how this section developed from time to time

So firstly this section said that in time line ( 26 Jan 1950 - 1st July 1987)

whose ever birth is taking place in India will automatically get Indian Citizenship

it doesn't matter that his/her parents are Indians or non Indians

But this happened till 1987 only

Why?

because around this time we realized that the countries which our neighbor

their citizens means the refugees and the illegal immigrants who are coming to India

while this time if their child take place in India then they are automatically eligible for Indian Citizenship

which is a problematic issue

Thats why afer the amendment act of 1986, this new time line was set (1st Jul 1987 - 3rd Dec 2003)

and said that according to this new time line whose ever is taking birth in India will get citizenship if their 1 parent is an Indian

but by this act the problem was not getting solved. And the new act was introduced in 2003

which finally set this, that if any body is taking birth in India after 3rd Dec 2003

will get Indian Citizenship when his/her both parents are Indian

or at least his/her any 1 parent must be an Indian and other parent should not be an Illegal Immigrant

now what Illegal Immigrant means. The section 21B of Citizenship act defines Illegal Immigrant

It says that if any traveler comes to India without any valid passport and any valid travel document

or if he is having valid passport but he has exceeded the permitted time limit to stay in India

If he or she is engaged in all that, then they will be called as Illegal Immigrants.

Currently the law of the land is this only. If your birth place is India and both parents are Indian

or one of the parents is Indian and other one is not an Illegal Immigrant then you will get Citizenship by birth

Next is Citizenship by DESCENT which is section 4

DESCENT means by your parents or grand parents your relation to any country

so section 4 says that if any one is taking birth outside India

then also he/she can acquire Indian Citizenship by the help of their DESCENT

In section 4 also there has been many changes from time to time, like firstly this section said that

after 26th Jan 1950, who ever is taking birth out side India, they can get Indian citizenship if

his/her father is an Indian citizen, so by the reason of his father they were getting Indian Citizenship

but this was till 10th Dec 1992 because after that the amendment act of 1992 came in to existence

which says about the gender neutrality. So this amendment act tells that

after 10th Dec 1992 which ever person has taken birth outside India

he/she can also get Indian Citizenship if one of his parent is an Indian citizen weather it is mother or father

So after this amendment because of their father or mother being Indian citizen he/she could get Indian Citizenship

But this was all till 3rd Dec 2004 only

Because after that the amendment which came and the current running law says that

if after 3rd Dec 2004 if any one's birth place is outside India then they will not get Indian citizenship as before

under 1 year of that child's birth their parents should go to that country's Indian Consulate

and should register their child as Indian Citizen

by this undertaking that their child who is a minor doesn't has any other country's passport

and currently this law only applies, So this was about section 4

So now by birth and DESCENT very limited people were able to acquire Indian Citizenship

So that's why to widen up process of Indian citizenship Section 5 has been introduced

Which is a registration process,, which specifies some peoples categories

and it says that the particular categories people if they can submit an application to the central government

So they can also be registered as Indian Citizens

For understanding about section 5 it is very important to understand this term PIO

Means Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) are those people whose birth or whose parents birth

took place in undivided India means in British India

or whose parents birth has been on that territory of India which has been included after 15 Aug 1947

like sikkim and pondicherry were part of India after the Independence

So all those people will be Persons of Indian Origin (POI)

So lets see who all comes under this categories

such person who is residing in India since last 7 years before making an application for registration

or such person of Indian origin who is residing out side India

or such persons who is married to Indian Citizen

or the minor children of Indian citizens

and a person of full age and capacity who is residing in any commonwealth country or in Republic of Ireland

the next is the important mode of acquisition which is naturalisation which is section 6

this section says that, the persons who has these all qualifications

and if that person could submit an application to the central government for the registration of Indian Citizenship

then central government can reigster his/her citizenship

So let's know what are the qualifications for that

firstly he should not be subject of that country where Indians are prevented for being a citizen

means he should not be a part of that country where Indians are prevented in that country for being citizen

Secondly, if he already acquires other country citizenship

then he has to renounce that citizenship for acquiring Indian citizenship

and from the date of application he should be residing in India for past 12 months

or should involved with service in government of India

means before applying he should be residing in India for last 12 months or should be doing any government service

if he is fulfilling partly of that condition it is also permissible

before date of application what should be done is given above

but before that 12 months during the period of 14 years he should be residing in India

or performing government service

so in that 14 years for aggregate of 11 years he should do this(Residing India/GOI)

in this also if he fulfills partly one condition it also permissible

Next is He should be of good character

and he should have the adequate knowledge of the languages which is prescribed in schedule 8

after that if he has been granted the certificate of naturalisation

then he should intent to reside in India

means after getting the certificate of naturalisation, his intention should be to live in India

along with this government of India has the power to wave off all this qualifications

only if any person has performed a distinguish service in the field of

Science, Art, Philosophy, Literature, Peace, Human Rights

So if any person has performed distinguish service in these fields

then for that person government of India can wave off any condition or whole qualification

so this was the naturalisation process which is section 6 and is very important

Next process is Incorporation by Territory which is section 7

This provision says that if any foreign territory becomes the part of India

then government of India will specify that who will known as Indian citizens of that foreign territory

like when Pondicherry became the part of India, then government of Inida issued an order to tell that

who all be qualified to become the Indian citizens

So this is section 7