Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, and Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and officials of both Ministries in New Delhi on Wednesday to workout a lasting solution to the simmering dual citizenship issue haunting a large number of Goans.
The issue is affecting over 50,000 people in this erstwhile Portuguese colony, Mr. Parrikar had recently admitted. The State government is taking a view that under section 8 of the Indian Citizenship Act, a person is deemed to be Indian citizen provided she does not renounce citizenship and also obtain citizenship of some other nation, sources said.
State government had in the past unsuccessfully written to the UPA Government requesting to take up the issue of dual citizenship with the Portugal requesting the latter to delete the clause in Portuguese law which makes those who were born in Goa before Liberation as Portuguese citizens.
The Ministry of Home Affairs(MoHA) vide notification dated March 28, 1962, had notified the Goa, Daman and Diu (Citizenship) order, 1962 under Section 7 of the Citizenship Act 1955 which ensured that every person who or either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents was born before December 20, 1961, in the then Union Territories of Goa, Daman and Diu, shall be deemed to have become citizens of India on that day, except where any such person had made a declaration in writing within one month that he had chosen to retain the citizenship which he had immediately before December 20, 1961.
The issue of dual citizenship came alive after two ruling side MLAs-Glen Ticklo of BJP and Caetano Silva of Goa Vikas Party had to approach courts faced with the problem. Many have since taken a legal position that their births (of Goans born before 1961) have been registered in Portugal by third person or some agent, without their knowledge.
Recently, Goa Police had to register FIRs against two senior police officials, 48 advocates and over 500 unknown persons working in or retired from various government departments, for illegally having dual citizenship following an order of a Magistrate.
The cases have been booked under Section 14 of Foreigners Act, Section 4&5 of Registration of Foreigners Act and Section 12 of Passport Act for holding citizenship of India and Portugal. They are accused of acquring Portuguese citizenship prior to February 4, 2013 by obtaining the ‘Bilhete de Identidade’ without surrendering the citizenship of India, said complaint against them.
A large number of Goans have been known to register their names in Portuguese birth registry in Lisbon, a facility they were offered by Portugal as citizens of their erstwhile colony, to get access to European Union in pursuit of better career and economic prospects. Many were known to be oblivious to the possibility of their Indian citizenship and voting right in India could be challenged before MoHA.
