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Centre: no dual citizenship for Pakistan, Bangladesh PIOs

Legal Correspondent

This is due to security reasons, it tells apex court

The policy is discriminatory: petitioner
Decision made on sound basis: Centre

New Delhi: Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) who had migrated from India and settled in Pakistan and Bangladesh are not eligible for dual citizenship due to security reasons, the Centre has informed the Supreme Court.

The government, in response to a petition questioning the policy of granting dual citizenship to PIOs, said: “Though there are visa provisions for these nationalities to facilitate their visits in the country, grant of a PIO card, which allows 15 years visa-free regime within facilities on a par with non-resident Indians, is not advisable from the security point of view.”

Under the scheme, “all PIOs, including PIO card-holders, shall enjoy parity with NRIs in respect of all facilities available to the latter in the economic, financial and educational fields except in matters relating to the acquisition of agricultural/plantation properties. No parity shall be allowed in the sphere of political rights.”

Petitioner’s contention

The petition was filed by K.N.A. Farooqi who was born in India and acquired Pakistan citizenship. He contended that the policy should be extended to all those who migrated from India and acquired foreign citizenship.

The petitioner said that he was born in Lucknow in 1934 and migrated to Pakistan in 1952.

He got married in 1966 and his wife was also from Lucknow. From 1971 they had been living in Karachi.

Contending that the Overseas Citizenship of India policy was discriminatory, he sought a direction to the Centre to extend the scheme to all those who migrated from India and acquired foreign citizenship.

The petition is expected to come up for further hearing next week.

“Reasonable classification”

Justifying the discriminatory treatment, the Centre said the guidelines stipulated that besides the nationals of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the nationals of Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Iran, China and any other country that might be specified would also be not eligible for PIO cards.

The government said:

“The differential treatment contemplated under the scheme is an instance of reasonable classification, where on account of certain considerations (including security considerations) citizens of certain countries have been excluded from the PIO scheme. It is entirely justifiable that in such matters, the Central government must retain the prerogative to exclude certain persons from the PIO scheme based on their citizenship.”

Seeking dismissal of the petition, the Centre said, “The exclusion of certain classes of persons from the PIO scheme is made with sound basis and not in an arbitrary manner. However, the scheme does not debar them to avail themselves [of] the benefits of visa regime applicable to those nationals for the purpose of specified duration of visits to India.”

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