Citizenship: Who Belongs to India and How

What does it mean to be a citizen of a country? Citizenship is more than just holding a passport. It is a legal bond between a person and the state, carrying with it a bundle of civil and political rights that no non-citizen can claim. In the Indian context, this question was especially pressing at the time of independence and Partition, when millions of people were moving across newly drawn borders. The Constitution’s framers had to answer a foundational question: who, exactly, is an Indian citizen?

What the Constitution Says: A Starter Kit, Not a Complete Code

The Constitution addresses citizenship in Part II, through Articles 5 to 11. But here is the important thing to understand: these provisions are neither permanent nor detailed. They were designed with a very specific and limited purpose.

All that Articles 5 to 11 do is identify the persons who became citizens of India on the day the Constitution came into force, that is, 26 January 1950. They do not lay down any rules for how citizenship can be gained or lost after that date. Instead, Article 11 hands over that responsibility entirely to Parliament, giving it the power to make any law on the acquisition, termination, and all other matters relating to citizenship.

Acting on this power, Parliament passed the Citizenship Act, 1955. This Act has been the main law governing Indian citizenship ever since, and it has been amended several times: in 1986, 1992, 2003, and 2005.

The First Citizens: Four Categories at Commencement

On 26 January 1950, four broad categories of people automatically became citizens of India:

• Persons domiciled in India (those who had their permanent home in Indian territory)
• Persons who had migrated from Pakistan to India
• Persons who had migrated to Pakistan but later returned to India
• Persons of Indian origin residing outside India

These categories reflect the reality of Partition. Massive population movements between India and Pakistan meant that the Constitution needed clear rules to settle who belonged where at the moment the new republic was born.

Three More Constitutional Guardrails

Beyond identifying the initial citizens, the Constitution lays down three additional rules that frame the entire citizenship structure:

• Article 9: No dual citizenship — If any person has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign state, they cannot be a citizen of India. This is a clear, absolute bar. The moment you choose another country’s citizenship of your own free will, you lose your Indian citizenship.
• Article 10: Continuity of citizenship — Every person who is a citizen (or is deemed to be one) at commencement continues to be a citizen, but this continuity is subject to whatever laws Parliament may make. In other words, Parliament can change the rules.
• Article 11: Parliament’s plenary power — Parliament has full authority to legislate on the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all related matters. This is the provision that gives the Citizenship Act, 1955 its constitutional backing.

Five Paths to Indian Citizenship

The Citizenship Act, 1955 sets out five distinct ways through which a person can acquire Indian citizenship:

• By birth — A person born on Indian soil can claim citizenship, subject to conditions specified in the Act
• By descent — A person born outside India to Indian citizen parents can acquire citizenship through their parentage
• By registration — Certain categories of persons (such as spouses of Indian citizens or persons of Indian origin) can apply for citizenship through a formal registration process
• By naturalisation — Foreign nationals who have lived in India for a specified period and meet other conditions can apply to become citizens through naturalisation
• By incorporation of territory — When new territory is added to India, the people of that territory become Indian citizens

Losing Indian Citizenship: Three Routes Out

Just as the Act lays down how citizenship is acquired, it also prescribes three ways through which it can be lost:

Renunciation: Giving It Up Voluntarily

Any Indian citizen who has reached the age of majority (full age) and has the mental capacity to make decisions can file a formal declaration giving up their Indian citizenship. Once this declaration is registered, the person stops being an Indian citizen.

There are two important safeguards built into this process:

• Wartime restriction — If such a declaration is made during a war in which India is engaged, the Central Government can withhold its registration. The logic is straightforward: during wartime, the state needs to control who exits its citizenship rolls.
• Impact on minor children — When a parent renounces citizenship, every minor child of that person also loses Indian citizenship automatically. However, the law provides a safety net: once such a child turns eighteen, they have the option to resume Indian citizenship.

Termination: Automatic Loss

This is not a voluntary process in the same way as renunciation. If an Indian citizen voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country, their Indian citizenship terminates automatically. The key word here is “voluntarily”, meaning the person must have acted consciously, knowingly, and without any duress, undue influence, or compulsion.

Like renunciation, this provision is suspended during wartime. If India is engaged in a war, the automatic termination rule does not apply.

Deprivation: The State Takes It Away

Unlike the first two methods, deprivation (compulsory removal of citizenship) is not initiated by the citizen. It is an action taken by the Central Government against an individual. The government can strip a person of their citizenship if:

• The citizen obtained their citizenship by fraud
• The citizen has shown disloyalty to the Constitution of India

This is the most coercive of the three methods because the individual has no choice in the matter. It serves as a safeguard against those who game the system or actively work against the constitutional order.

Single Citizenship: One Status Across the Entire Nation

Unlike some federal countries (such as the United States, where citizens hold both federal and state citizenship), India follows the principle of single citizenship. Every Indian citizen, regardless of which state they were born in or where they currently reside, enjoys the same political and civil rights throughout the country. There is no separate “state citizenship” in India.

This means a person from Kerala has exactly the same rights in Maharashtra as a person born and raised in Maharashtra. No state can treat citizens from other states as outsiders when it comes to the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Constitutional Exceptions to This General Rule

While the default is complete equality, the Constitution itself carves out a few narrow exceptions where state-level distinctions are permitted:

• Employment preferences under Article 16 — Parliament can prescribe residence within a particular state or union territory as a condition for certain government jobs in that area. Using this power, Parliament enacted the Public Employment (Requirement as to Residence) Act, 1957, which allowed the Government of India to set residential qualifications for appointment to non-gazetted posts in Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Tripura. This Act expired in 1974, and since then no such residential requirement has existed for any state except Andhra Pradesh.

• Residence-based benefits under Article 15 — Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. Notice that residence is not on this list. This means states are free to offer special benefits (like reduced tuition fees or scholarships) to their own residents, as long as these benefits do not fall within the scope of the constitutionally protected rights. For example, a state university can charge lower fees for students who are residents of that state.

• Tribal area restrictions under Article 19 — The right to move freely and reside anywhere in India (guaranteed by Article 19) is subject to restrictions meant to protect the interests of Scheduled Tribes. The state can limit the entry, residence, and settlement of outsiders in tribal areas. The purpose is to protect the distinctive culture, language, customs, and traditional livelihoods of tribal communities and to guard their property against exploitation.

The Jammu and Kashmir Exception: Now History

Before August 2019, Article 370 gave the Jammu and Kashmir state legislature a unique power: it could define who qualified as a permanent resident of the state and grant them special privileges. These included preferential treatment in state government employment, the right to acquire immovable property in the state, settlement rights, and access to state-funded scholarships and aid.

Following the abrogation of Article 370 and the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir into Union Territories, all these special provisions ceased to apply. Today, J&K follows the same citizenship rules as every other part of India.