Two minor Pakistani nationals, born to a Pakistani father and an Indian mother in Dubai, will have to wait till they complete 21 years of age to apply for Indian citizenship as the High Court of Karnataka has said that it cannot direct authorities to grant citizenship to them when the Pakistani law does not permit its citizens to give up their citizenship till they turn 21.
“When the law of Pakistan does not permit renunciation of citizenship till the age of 21, the law of India would not permit grant of citizenship till the renunciation of citizenship of another country,” the court observed while pointing out that Indian law prohibits dual citizenship.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while rejecting a joint petition, filed by the 17-year-old girl and the 14-year-old boy, represented by their mother, Ameena, all residents of Bengaluru.
Case background
Ms. Ameena had married Assad Mallik, a Pakistani national, in Dubai in 2002 as per the Shariah law. The two children were born to them in 2004 and 2008, respectively, in Dubai. The couple got divorced in 2014 by way of mutual consent before a court in Dubai and the father relinquished his custody over the children. However, the children continued to stay in Dubai along with their mother, who was employed there.
The mother, on finding no means for subsistence in Dubai, in 2021 decided to come back to her parental house in Bengaluru and approached the Indian authorities in Dubai to bring children to India as they, being Pakistani nationals, were possessing Pakistani passports.
The Consulate General of India, Dubai, on humanitarian grounds, granted temporary passports on May 31, 2021, on the condition that it would be subject to their citizenship status after they surrendered their Pakistani passports.
Also, the Consulate General of Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Dubai clarified to the Indian authorities that it has no objection for grant of Indian nationality to the two minor children but pointed out categorically that individuals below 21 years of age cannot apply for renunciation of citizenship under the Pakistan Citizenship Act.
MHA’s stand
The mother, on coming to India, wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on May 5, 2022, seeking Indian citizenship for the children and knocked on the doors of the court in July 2022, as she did not receive any response from the MHA. However, the MHA, during the pendency of the petition, in September 2022, rejected her request citing the Citizenship Act, 1955.
“If the laws of Pakistan are inflexible to a situation of this kind, so are the laws of this nation, which cannot be made flexible in the peculiar facts of this case. The children who are now seeking Indian citizenship can seek it only after they renounce the citizenship of Pakistan,” the court observed.
