Indian Citizenship: Surrendering & the Bizarre Right to be Stateless
“Why should citizenship be a matter of birth? The premise held by those who want to endbirthright citizenship is that some people deserve it and some do not- that the status shouldn’t be handed out automatically. Frankly that’s a premise worth considering” - Eric Liu.
Citizenship is the status of being a citizen of a particular state. Along with citizenship come rights, privileges and duties of being a citizen. A person without the citizenship of any state is known as stateless. Under the scheme of international law, statelessness is the lack of citizenship. Article-1 of 1954 Statelessness Convention, defines a stateless person is ‘who is not considered a national by any State under the operation of its law’.
There are two kinds of statelessness de jure and de facto. A person who is stateless and will be treated a foreigner by every country. This phenomenon can also be classified as de jure, though the term has not per se been mentioned in both the 1954 and 1961 conventions, whereas, the term ‘de facto’has been referred to the Final Act of 1961 convention. Where the main contention lies is in what way a nationality should demonstrate itself to be ineffective, in order to warrant the use of the label of “de facto statelessness”
Conflicting nationality laws are one of many causes of statelessness. Jus soli, in layman terms knows as 'right of the soil' denotes a regime by which nationality is acquired through birth on the territory of the state. Jus sanguin is which is the 'right of blood' is a regime by which nationality is acquired through descent, usually from a parent who is a national. The concept is attracted when
a person who does not have either parent eligible to pass citizenship by jus sanguin is becomes stateless at birth if born in a state which does not recognize just soli.
An important step to prevent and dissuade the concept of statelessness at birth provides and embraces nationality to children born in a territory who would otherwise be stateless. This concept finds substance from the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and finds force in several regional human rights treaties which include the American Convention on Human Rights, the European Convention on Nationality, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child pertinently implicit in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
People may also become stateless as a result of administrative and practical problems, especially when they are from a group whose nationality is questioned. There have been publicized cases of individuals who became voluntarily stateless upon renouncing their citizenship like the ‘world citizen’ Garry Davis and also Albert Einstein, who, in January 1896, at the age of 16, was released from his Württemberg citizenship after filing a petition to that effect. Generally states do not allow citizens to renounce their nationality unless they acquire another.
The statutory enactment governing the acquiring and termination of citizenship in India is governed by The Citizenship Act 1955. As per Section 3 of The Citizenship Act, citizenship in India makes it an entitlement as a birthright of every person born in India providing if one of the parents is a citizen of India. The purview of Statelessness also finds place under the Indian law, though indirectly. According to the Indian Citizenship Act, section 8 is the relevant provision to renounce citizenship of India. It is a right given to Indian citizens to renounce their citizenship, and by doing this they become de jure stateless. Renouncing a citizenship follows with consequences also, once a citizen has renounced his or her citizenship in India, the children of such a person are also deprived of the citizenship in India.
It is a strange paradox that earlier, the renouncing of the Indian citizenship was only possible when a person acquired a citizenship of another country. However after the amendment by the parliament in section 8 of the Act in 2014, the words' acquiring of citizenship of another country' were omitted, which brought into formation the concept of statelessness. As per the present provision, an Indian citizen can renounce his Indian citizenship without even acquiring a citizenship of another country, which was necessary earlier.
An important step to prevent and dissuade the concept of statelessness at birth provides and embraces nationality to children born in a territory who would otherwise be stateless
An important step to prevent and dissuade the concept of statelessness at birth provides and embraces nationality to children born in a territory who would otherwise be stateless. This concept finds substance from the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and finds force in several regional human rights treaties which include the American Convention on Human Rights, the European Convention on Nationality, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child pertinently implicit in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
People may also become stateless as a result of administrative and practical problems, especially when they are from a group whose nationality is questioned. There have been publicized cases of individuals who became voluntarily stateless upon renouncing their citizenship like the ‘world citizen’ Garry Davis and also Albert Einstein, who, in January 1896, at the age of 16, was released from his Württemberg citizenship after filing a petition to that effect. Generally states do not allow citizens to renounce their nationality unless they acquire another.
The statutory enactment governing the acquiring and termination of citizenship in India is governed by The Citizenship Act 1955. As per Section 3 of The Citizenship Act, citizenship in India makes it an entitlement as a birthright of every person born in India providing if one of the parents is a citizen of India. The purview of Statelessness also finds place under the Indian law, though indirectly. According to the Indian Citizenship Act, section 8 is the relevant provision to renounce citizenship of India. It is a right given to Indian citizens to renounce their citizenship, and by doing this they become de jure stateless. Renouncing a citizenship follows with consequences also, once a citizen has renounced his or her citizenship in India, the children of such a person are also deprived of the citizenship in India.
It is a strange paradox that earlier, the renouncing of the Indian citizenship was only possible when a person acquired a citizenship of another country. However after the amendment by the parliament in section 8 of the Act in 2014, the words' acquiring of citizenship of another country' were omitted, which brought into formation the concept of statelessness. As per the present provision, an Indian citizen can renounce his Indian citizenship without even acquiring a citizenship of another country, which was necessary earlier.
