The Central government on Wednesday made it clear in Parliament that dual citizenship “is not permitted” under the Constitution and the Citizenship Act, 1955.
This assumes relevance in the context of the request made by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, in his address to the Assembly last month, for the granting of dual citizenship to Sri Lankan refugees living in Tamil Nadu.
In various memoranda submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since mid-2016, successive Chief Ministers, including the current one, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, have made a reference to the demand.
During the day, veteran actor Rajinikanth too echoed the demand.
In the Rajya Sabha, replying to a question from N. Gokulakrishnan of the AIADMK on the number of countries with whom India had dual citizenship agreements, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai referred to Article 9 of the Constitution (persons voluntarily acquiring citizenship of a foreign State not to be citizens) and Section 9 of the Citizenship Act (termination of citizenship) to drive home the point that dual citizenship was not permissible.
Bilateral agreement
On the possibility of the Central government entering into a bilateral agreement with the Sri Lankan government for offering dual citizenship to refugees living in India (Tamil Nadu), the Union Minister said “no such proposal is under consideration”. To a query as to how many Sri Lankan Tamils had applied for Indian citizenship, the reply was: “No such records are maintained.”
The Minister also informed the House that under the 1964 Sirimavo–Shastri Agreement and the 1974 Sirimavo-Indira Gandhi Agreement, 6 lakh Indian Origin Tamils (IOT) along with natural increase would be given Indian citizenship, while Sri Lanka would absorb 3.75 lakh persons.
As per the information supplied by the Tamil Nadu government’s Public (Rehabilitation) Department, a total of 4,61,639 IOTs were repatriated to India from Sri Lanka under the two agreements up until 2006, after registering them as citizens of India and issuing passports to them.
Mr. Rai added that in 1988, the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the Grant of Citizenship to Stateless Persons Act, which granted Sri Lankan citizenship to those IOTs who had not applied for Indian citizenship under the previous agreement.
In 2003, it adopted the Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act, providing Sri Lankan citizenship to the IOTs who had been residing in Sri Lanka since October 1964, as well as their descendants.
