Overview
- A division bench led by Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela ruled that Section 5(1)(g) of the Citizenship Act requires a person or a parent to have been born in undivided India before August 15, 1947, to qualify as a person of Indian origin.
- The court set aside Justice Prathiba M. Singh’s May 2024 order that granted citizenship to 17-year-old Rachita Francis Xavier based on her mother’s post-Independence birth.
- The Ministry of Home Affairs has appealed for a clarification that the single judge’s observations on POI and ‘illegal migrant’ definitions should not serve as binding precedent.
- The government warned that a broader interpretation of POI and the illegal migrant definition could undermine the Citizenship Act’s framework by opening the door to numerous similar claims.
- Further consideration of the MHA’s plea to limit the ruling’s precedential impact and address definitions under the Citizenship and Foreigners Acts has been scheduled for October 15, 2025.