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Citizenship pertains to a relationship that is formed between a state and its citizens. If you are Recognised as a citizen, it holds significance in political, social and civil rights that are not delivered to non-citizens/aliens of the country. The directions of acquiring citizenship differ from nation to nation where each of them helps and specialises under different conditions. However, one can also get on for the relinquishing of citizenship, where one can terminate his citizenship by various ways.
Citizenship in India
The Constitution of India confers numerous rights and freedoms to the citizens of India that provide help to the citizens in improving their living standards. It is with the help of Articles 5 to 11. Constitutional provisions that are enshrined for the acquisition of citizenship are given by the Citizenship Act (1955) by the Parliament. Citizenship Act, 1955 deals with legislations that provide for the relinquishing of citizenship and acquisition of citizenship in India.
Acquiring of citizenship
Citizenship Act has legislated five directions of acquiring citizenship in our Indian country :
1)Birth:
The Citizenship act 1955 specifies and bestows citizenship to the population who are born in India on or after the building up of the Constitution, but before July 1, 1987. Likewise, people born after July 1, 1987, should have either of their parents as an inhabitant or resident of India, when they were born.
The ones who are born after the time period of December 3, 2004, shouldn’t have parents that are illicit migrants, or would have entered by unlawful means. This means that either of the parents should have citizenship.
2)Descent:
A person having his birth date on or after January 26, 1950, but before the date of December 10, 1992 and outside India, should be accepted as a citizen if his father or mother had been the citizen of India at the time of his birth. A person who is assumed to be born outside India after December 10, 1992, is supposed as a citizen of India if either his mother or father has the citizenship of India at the time of his birth.
3)By Registration:
A person can be registered or enlisted as a citizen of India if he is a common citizen of India for seven years before the application. A person whose either of the parents is a citizen of India and an individual enrolled as an OCI can also register as citizens of India under the Citizenship Act 1955.
4)By Naturalisation:
A certificate or a statement of naturalized citizenship cannot be granted to a person in some cases. Here, if the person pertains to that nation where there are preventions and restrictions on the acquisition of citizenship for the Indian people. He
may get citizenship on conditions like if he has good character and adequate knowledge of a minimum one language that is illustrated and presented in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Conditions for acquisition of citizenship through naturalisation are:
1) The person should be an ordinary resident in the country India for 12 years (throughout 12 months preceding the date of application and 11 years in the aggregate) and
2) He should conform to all the capabilities mentioned in the third schedule of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
5)By Incorporation of Territory:
One can better understand this with an example of Pondicherry. In earlier times, when Pondicherry came to be a part of India, the community living there became inhabitants of India and automatically got citizenship of India. Similarly, if any territory or an area comes to be a part of India, all the population that is residing there becomes a part of the country, thus the citizen is upholding the acquisition of Citizenship from transfer.
Relinquishing of Citizenship
The Constitution of India has specified three directions of how one can lose its citizenship acquired with the help of the citizenship act of 1955.
1)Termination
One can go for relinquishing of citizenship by way of termination of citizenship. If an Indian citizen voluntarily acquires citizenship in some other country, his existing citizenship of India gets terminated automatically.
2)Renunciation
One can knowingly and purposely opt for relinquishing of citizenship. On the renunciation of the citizenship of the person upon his declaration, every minor child of that person gets terminated from the Indian citizenship. However, he can continue his citizenship once he reaches the age of 18.
3)Deprivation
Obtaining citizenship by fraud, showing disloyalty to the country and employment in unlawful trade leads to the deprivation of a person from Indian citizenship by the Indian government.
Conclusion
None is given unlimited rights (this is done to prevent the misuse of the powers). It is also interesting to know that the Constitution of our country provides for only single citizenship. This means that there is no differentiation in the citizenship of centre and state citizenship. We hope that you got clarity about the difference between the acquiring of citizenship and relinquishing of citizenship in India.
