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Delhi High Court Restricts POI Status to Pre-1947 Births

The division bench has confined POI status to births before Independence, setting the government’s plea to curb the ruling’s precedent for hearing on October 15.

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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.