Delhi HC to decide on woman’s nationality after son’s OCI card confiscated

An Indian-origin man who is a citizen of the United States has sought a declaration from the Delhi high court that his mother is not a Pakistani national after the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards issued to him and his sons by Indian government authorities were confiscated

An Indian-origin man who is a citizen of the United States has sought a declaration from the Delhi high court that his mother is not a Pakistani national after the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards issued to him and his sons by Indian government authorities were confiscated.

Police commandos stand guard in front of Delhi high court in New Delhi.

The man’s mother was born in India in 1937, and moved with her family to Pakistan during the Partition in 1947. However, she returned to India in 1958, got married and settled here.

Hearing the case, a single judge bench of justice Yashwant Varma noted that the question which arises is whether the respondents (the Centre) would be correct in holding the petitioner’s mother as a citizen of Pakistan, despite her birth in India and her returning back to the country 11 years after she left during Partition.

The judge also said that it would have to thus examine whether the OCI card of the father and sons could be rejected, by holding the grandmother to be a Pakistani national. It asked the counsel for the union of India to take instructions on this aspect and posted the matter for hearing in October.

The hearing took place on August 17 but the order was released recently.

During the hearing, the court noted the submissions of the man’s counsel who contended that merely because his mother moved to Pakistan during Partition, that cannot possibly be viewed as a renunciation of Indian citizenship which was inherited in her as a consequence of her being born in undivided India.

The counsel also submitted that the mother moved back to India for marriage in 1958 and has remained in the country since then and is undisputedly a citizen of India.

Advocate Nidhi Raman, appearing for the Centre, said that their perception that the mother is a Pakistani national is evident from the disclosures made by the son in his application for OCI status. The court noted that the son, while making the application, had categorically and candidly declared that his mother was born in India in 1937 and thereafter moved along with the family post-Partition to Pakistan.