India Passes Bill on Dual Citizenship for Certain PIOs
Posted Dec 26, 2003

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2003, was finally passed by the Indian Parliament on Monday, December 22, 2003. This Bill will allow dual citizenship for citizens of specific countries, including the United States, who are persons of Indian origin (PIOs) and vest them with certain benefits previously accruing solely to Indian citizens. The probability of India's allowing some sort of dual citizenship, and the list of 16 countries, the citizens of whom are also PIOs, able to enjoy this benefit by the Indian government has been previously covered in the MurthyBulletin. See our articles, India: Dual Citizenship Proposed (posted May 9, 2003) and Dual Citizenship Possible for Indian Nationals (posted January 18, 2002), both available on MurthyDotCom.

According to the Bill's Statement of Objectives, among other issues, the Bill seeks to amend the (Indian) Citizenship Act, 1955, and simplify the procedure to facilitate the reacquisition of Indian citizenship by persons who were formerly Indian citizens and for the children of former Indian citizens. The Bill seeks to grant Overseas Citizenship of India to PIOs from 16 countries and for those Indian citizens who choose to acquire citizenship of any of these 16 countries at a later date. Thus, before this Bill, Indian citizens gaining U.S. citizenship could not also continue to be Indian citizens; now they can. Separately, the Bill also makes acquisition of Indian citizenship and naturalization more stringent, and prevents illegal migrants from becoming eligible for Indian citizenship.

Earlier this year, the Bill had already passed the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament), but was stuck in the lower house due to the Opposition Parties wanting evidence on how such PIOs could benefit India and its economic development by being granted dual citizenship. In fact, eager to have the legislation in place before the second Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas (Outsiders-India Day) celebrations due on January 9^th and 10^th, 2004, the Indian Government revised the 'List of Business' for the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) to bring the Bill to the Lower House. Mr. L.K. Advani, the Deputy Prime Minister said the passage of the Bill would also fulfill the government's promise to the PIOs made at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas in January 2003.

Although this Bill is very helpful for those persons of Indian origin who may enjoy its benefits, one of the criticisms of the Bill is that it does not apply equally to PIOs from all countries. Only a selected list of 16 countries' PIOs may enjoy the benefits accorded under this Bill.

Of course, the other issue is that the laws of the 16 countries will have to be compatible with dual citizenship to make this benefit available to those PIOs who may qualify. No change in United States law is needed for PIOs to benefit from the new law. For those interested in U.S. law on citizenship, please review these articles available on MurthyDotCom : Basic Eligibility Requirements for Naturalization (Feb 15, 2002), and Benefits of Becoming a U.S. Citizen (Feb 8, 2002).