Agencies
KOLKATA, feb 29 :
Foreigners can apply for Indian citizenship without a valid passport from the country of origin if they can furnish proper reasons for not possessing one, the Calcutta High Court has ruled.
Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya disposed of a petition by granting the petitioner liberty to file an application before the authority as contemplated in Rule 11 of the Citizenship Rules 2009, upon furnishing explanation for the non-availability of the passport.The court noted that Clause 9 of Form III of the citizenship application requires the passport particulars of the applicant to be filled in and the documents to be attached with the application includes a valid foreign passport.Passing the order, the court observed that although the rule “contemplates that an application shall not be entertained unless the application is made in Form III, such provision does not make the availability of a passport a mandatory requirement”.
It further said that the “Form given with the Rules or the Rules themselves cannot override the provision of the statute itself, under which the said Rules are framed, which does not stipulate such a mandate on the applicants for citizenship under Section 5(1)(c) of the 1955 Act mandatorily to carry a passport”.
The court said that under such circumstances, it cannot be held that the provision of producing a passport and its particulars are mandatory in nature and there has to be a relaxation in such requirement in the case the petitioner is able to satisfy the appropriate authorities the reasons for non-availability of such passport. The court further said that unless such leeway is given to applicants, genuine persons who have been residing in India for a long time and married a resident of India would also be unable to apply for Indian Citizenship, despite having contributed to the economy and diverse culture of this country.
The high court said that this would be “contradictory to the spirit of Article 14 of the Constitution of India”.
In such view of the matter, the requirement of having a passport has to be read as optional in Form III of the Citizenship Rules, 2009 and the authorities are deemed to have the power to relax such requirement in the event the applicant satisfied the authorities for genuine reasons why the applicant is not in a position to produce such passport, Justice Bhattacharyya said in the order passed earlier this week. The court said that despite the provision of making applications online, a provision has to be made for persons who do not have all the particulars of their passport, to file applications manually.
Passport not mandatory for foreigners to apply for Indian citizenship: Calcutta HC
