➢ Part II of the Indian Constitution defines several categories of Indian citizens at the

commencement of the Constitution.

➢ A citizen of a given State is a person who enjoys full membership

of the political community or the State. Citizens are different from aliens or mere
residents who do not have all the rights which go to make full membership of a State.

➢ A citizen actually enjoys full civil and political rights.

➢ Citizenship carries with it certain advantages conferred by the Constitution. Citizenship

inheres only in natural persons and not in juristic persons like corporations or societies
etc.

➢ There is single citizenship for the whole of India i.e. Indian citizenship. In many federal
constitutions, there are dual citizenship—a state citizenship and a federal citizenship.

➢ Under dual citizenship the citizen of one federating state is virtually an alien in another
such state. There being only single citizenship, the rights, privileges and obligations are
the same for all citizens throughout India.
➢ Indian Constitution ensures certain fundamental rights which are available to Indian citizens
only. Aliens cannot enjoy these rights.

➢ Such fundamental rights as exclusively enjoyable by the Indian citizens are enumerated under Articles
15, 16, 18(2), 19 and 29.

➢ Also, citizens alone have the right to hold certain high offices such as those of President of India [Article
58 (1)(a)], Vice-President [Article 66(3)(a)], Governor of the State [Article 157], Judge of the Supreme
Court [Article 124(3)], High Court Judge [Article 217(2)], Attorney General of India [Article 76(1)] and
Advocate General [Article 165].

➢ The Constitution lays down sets of provisions relating to citizenship—one set which tells us
who are, or who may be deemed to be, Indian citizens at the commencement of the Constitution, the
other set tells us that Parliament may make any provision with respect to acquisition and termination
of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.

➢ The Constitution thus, as it stands, does not

contain the exhaustive law on the subject and that is why a separate enactment (i.e. The Indian
Citizenship Act, 1955) has been passed. Citizenship is to be determined as per the Citizenship Act,
1955 and the Constitutional provisions.
Citizenship at the commencement of the Constitution
Article 5 to 8 describes 4 classes of people who were deemed to be citizens of India at the time of the
commencement of the constitution-
1. Persons domiciled in India
2. Persons who migrated from Pakistan
3. Persons who migrated to Pakistan
4. Persons living abroad i.e., in foreign countries other than Pakistan

Citizenship by domicile (Article 5) –

A person is entitled to citizenship by domicile if he fulfils two
conditions laid down by Article 5.
First, he must, at the commencement of the Constitution, have his
domicile in the territory of India.
Secondly, such person must fulfil any one of the three conditions laid
down in the Article, namely,
(a) he was born in India,
(b) either of his parents was born in India,
(c) he must have been ordinarily resident in the territory of India for not less than 5 years
immediately before the commencement of the Constitution.
Citizenship of persons who migrated to India from Pakistan before the commencement of the
Constitution (Art. 6)
Persons who have migrated from Pakistan to India have been classified into two categories for the
purposes of citizenship—
(a) those who migrated to India before July 19, 1948, and
(b) those who migrated on or after July 19, 1948.

According to Article 6-
(i) The persons of the first category i.e. persons who migrated from Pakistan to India before July 19,
1948 shall be deemed to be a citizen of India at the commencement of the Constitution, that is on 26th
January, 1950, if-
(a) he or either of his parents or any of his grand-parents was born in India as defined in the
Government of India Act, 1935 and
(b) he should have resided in India since the date of his migration.
(ii) As regarding the persons of second category i.e. persons who migrated from Pakistan to
India on
or after July 19, 1948, following conditions must be fulfilled to enable him to acquire
Indian citizenship
and to be deemed as a citizen of India at the commencement of the Constitution i.e. on 26th
January,
1950-
(a) he or either of his parents or any of his grand-parents was born in India as defined in the
Government of India Act, 1935 and
(b) he should have resided in India, after migration for at least six months.
(c) he must have submitted an application for registration as a citizen wherein he must
prove that
he resided in India for at least six months preceding submission of such application.
(d) he has been registered as citizen of India by an officer appointed by the Government of
India
for that purpose.
Citizenship of migrants of Pakistan (Article 7)
Article 7 provides that anyone who has, after 1st March, 1947 migrated from India to
Pakistan,
cannot be a citizen of India. But, Article 7 also makes a special provision regarding the
citizenship
rights of persons who migrated to Pakistan after March 1, 1947 but returned to India
subsequently.
Such a person becomes entitled to Citizenship of India, provided they fulfil the conditions
stated for
Migrants from Pakistan stated in Article 6. An immigrant to Pakistan after 1st March, 1947,
who has
returned to India under a proper legal permit for resettlement or permanent return to India—
such a
person should fulfil all other conditions necessary for immigrants from Pakistan after July
19, 1948.
Citizenship of persons of Indian origin residing outside India (Article 8)
Article 8 provides that any person who or either of whose parents or grandparents was born
in India as defined in Government of India Act 1955 but who is ordinarily residing in any
country
outside India, shall be deemed to be a citizen of India if he has been registered as an Indian
Citizen by
the diplomatic or consular representative of India in that country on an application made by
him/her
in the prescribed form to such diplomatic or consular representative, whether before or after
the
commencement of the Constitution.
A person residing outside India if he satisfies the following two conditions—
(i) he or either of his parents or any of his grand-parents must have been born in undivided
India and
(ii) he must have been registered as a citizen of India by the Diplomatic or Consular
representative of India in the country where he is for the time being residing on an
application made to such representative in prescribed form and manner.
 Article 9 provides that if a person voluntarily acquires the citizenship of any foreign State, he shall not
remain a citizen of India under Article 5, 6 and 8. Article 9 does not disable Parliament from conferring
Indian citizenship on a person who has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign state. The
Citizenship Act was amended in 2003 and again in 2005 to introduce the concept of overseas
citizenship for citizens of other countries.

Continuance of the rights of citizenship (Article 10)

Article 10 reads every person who is or is deemed to be a citizen of India under any of the
foregoing provisions of Article 5-10 shall continue to be a citizen of India, subject to the provisions of
any law that may be made by Parliament. In the other words, the right of citizenship cannot be taken
away from a person except through express parliamentary legislation.
Parliament is empowered under Article 11 to make any provision with respect to acquisition
and termination of citizenship. In exercise of that power it may take away the right of citizenship
which has accrued to a person under the foregoing provisions. But until that is done, a person who is
or is deemed to be a citizen of India shall continue to be a citizen of India.