Provisions relating to Citizenship and Citizenship Act 1955 (Part II)

A child is born at a Navi Mumbai hospital to parents who both hold Indian passports. Another is born in Dubai to an Indian father. A third is born in Mumbai to a foreign couple on a work visa. A fourth person, married to an Indian, has lived here for years. Are all four Indian citizens? The answer is different for each, and the rules sit in two places: Part II of the Constitution, which dealt with who became a citizen on 26 January 1950, and the Citizenship Act 1955, which deals with everyone after that.

In two minutes

Articles 5 to 9 decided who was a citizen at the commencement of the Constitution, Articles 10 and 11 left the rest to Parliament, and the Citizenship Act 1955 provides the modes of acquisition (birth, descent, registration, naturalisation, incorporation of territory) and loss (renunciation, termination, deprivation).

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