BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court made it clear that Indian laws cannot be made flexible to grant citizenship if Pakistan laws are inflexible to allow minor children to renounce their citizenship before they attain 21 years to get Indian citizenship. The court asked a mother to produce all necessary documents before the authorities concerned, in terms of the Citizenship Act, for the grant of Indian citizenship to her minor children.
“Unless such renunciation comes about, no directions could be issued to the Ministry of External Affairs to consider the case of the mother for grant of citizenship to the children. Therefore, it is for the mother to place all those materials sought by the authorities, to consider the grant of such citizenship in favour of the minor children. No mandamus would lie in the peculiar facts of this case,” said Justice M Nagaprasanna.
The order was passed while rejecting the petitions filed by a girl (17) and a boy (14), represented by their mother Ameena from Basavanagudi in the city. They were seeking consideration of their pleas filed through their mother to the ministry in May 2022, to issue passports and Indian citizenship.
The children’s father, Assad Malik, is a Pakistani citizen, while the mother is an Indian citizen. They were residing in Dubai after their marriage in April 2002. After the divorce was granted by a Dubai court in 2014, custody of the minor children was handed to the mother. The children were declared to be Pakistani citizens, by virtue of their father’s Pakistani nationality, Pakistani citizenship and passports.
The court said the children are not “stateless” as they are declared to be citizens of Pakistan. They have only surrendered their passports but not their citizenship in Pakistan. The Citizenship Act of 1955 does not grant citizenship to those persons who are already citizens of another country and who also hold passports of any other country, be they major or minor. The mother may be an Indian citizen, but the children cannot be granted citizenship as they are already citizens of Pakistan, the court added.
In reply to the mother’s representation, the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, in April 2021 observed that under Section 14-A of the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951, only an individual above the age of 21 can apply for his/her renunciation of citizenship by virtue of which his/her minor children below the age of 21, residing outside Pakistan, will cease to be citizens of Pakistan. Minor children cannot renounce their Pakistani citizenship. The Pakistan authorities should also indicate that they have no objection for grant of Indian nationality to the children.