Can't seek Indian citizenship till Pakistani citizenship is renounced, K'tka HC tells two minors
Bengaluru, Apr 6: The High Court of Karnataka has refused to give direction to the Indian authorities as sought by two minor Pakistani citizens to grant them citizenship.
The minors had approached the HC through their mother who is an Indian. Their father is a Pakistani and the two -- a 17-year old girl and 14-year old boy -- were born in Dubai and now reside in Bengaluru with their mother Ameena.
Justice M Nagaprasanna in his judgement said that they had renounced their Pakistani passport but not the citizenship of that country. As per laws of Pakistan they can renounce their citizenship only after turning 21. In those circumstances, they cannot be granted citizenship of India.
"...the children as on today, are not Stateless. They are citizens of Pakistan. They have only surrendered the passport but they have not renounced citizenship of Pakistan; mere surrender of the passport does not amount to renunciation of citizenship. 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," the court said.
"Therefore, it is for the mother, to place all those materials that are sought for by the authorities, to consider grant of such citizenship in favour of the petitioners. No mandamus would lie in the peculiar facts of this case," the HC said in its recent judgement.
Ameena was married to one Asaad Mallik in 2002 and divorced in 2014. She returned to Bengaluru to her parental home in 2021. She sought to bring her children with her and the Indian Consulate in Dubai granted the children temporary passports on humanitarian grounds. But it was subject to the citizenship status of the children after they surrendered their Pakistani passport.
The Pakistani authorities declared the two cannot renounce their citizenship till they turned 21. When her request to the Ministry of Home Affairs was not answered she approached the HC.
The HC, however, pointed to the Citizenship Act and said "Section 5(1)(d) of the Act mandates that both the parents are required to be Indian citizens for the purpose of grant of citizenship to the minors and, therefore, it is clearly indicated in the order that all the documents which would be necessary for grant of citizenship should be produced before the Authorities."
"If the law elsewhere, i.e., Pakistan does not permit renunciation of citizenship by minors up to a certain age, the law of this nation would not permit grant of citizenship to such persons. Therefore, it is for the mother of the petitioners to produce all the documents necessary before the concerned Authorities in India for an Indian citizenship to be accorded in terms of the Act."
The HC said the Indian laws cannot be violated to grant citizenship to the two minors.
"If 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 only after they renounce the citizenship of Pakistan as admittedly, the biological father is a citizen of Pakistan. The children are declared to be citizens of Pakistan."
"The mother may be an Indian citizen, unless violence is done to the language of the Citizenship Act, 1955, the children cannot be granted citizenship as they are already citizens of Pakistan and this Court by its order would not indulge in any such violence to the language of the mandate of the statute," it said.
However if they fulfil the necessary conditions, the authorities can grant them citizenship according to law.
"The rejection of the writ petition will however not come in the way of the respondents Authorities -- in considering the case of the petitioner, in the event, they fulfill all the necessary requirements," the HC said.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
