Previous Year Question

Part II — Citizenship of the Constitution contains the provisions relating to citizenship and comprises Articles 5 to 11.

Broadly, Article 5 deals with citizenship at the commencement of the Constitution, Article 6 with certain persons who migrated from Pakistan to India, Article 7 with certain migrants to Pakistan, Article 8 with persons of Indian origin residing outside India, Article 9 with voluntary acquisition of foreign citizenship, and Article 10 with continuance of citizenship rights.

Article 11 is especially important. It empowers Parliament to make laws regarding the acquisition and termination of citizenship and other matters relating to citizenship. Exercising this power, Parliament enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955, which contains detailed provisions concerning citizenship by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation and incorporation of territory, as well as renunciation, termination and deprivation of citizenship.

Thus, a useful distinction is that Part II (Articles 5–11) provides the constitutional framework, while the detailed statutory rules governing citizenship are principally contained in the Citizenship Act, 1955.