"Your passport is not a document of your citizenship": MEA

"Your passport is not a document of your citizenship": MEA | Explained in 3 Mins

3 weeks ago 14

Your passport is not a document of your citizenship. Yes, that's what officials at the Ministry of External Affairs have said: a passport is a travel document, not proof of citizenship. This statement has revived a long-standing question: Which documents can conclusively establish Indian citizenship? The remarks from MEA came on Passport Seva Diwas, when the ministry highlighted the scale of its passport operation saying that it delivered around 1.5 crore passports and related services in 2025. Now this issue has surfaced many queries. One is whether a person excluded from the election commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls could rely on their possession of an Indian Passport to establish citizenship. The remarks have drawn attention because Indian law does not provide a simple answer to the relationship between passports and citizenship Under section 6(2)(a) of the Passports Act, 1967, passport authorities are required to refuse issuance of a passport if the applicant is not a citizen of India. The government’s Passport Manual describes a passport as an identity and travel document that “provides evidence of the holder’s nationality” while also noting that the Union government may issue passports or travel documents to non-nationals in specified circumstances under Section 20 of the Act. The issue has acquired added significance because passports are among the documents the Election Commission accepted for the SIR exercise in Bihar and elsewhere. During hearings before the Supreme Court in petitions challenging the Bihar SIR, the Election Commission argued that Aadhaar establishes identity but not citizenship because it can be issued to residents who are not Indian citizens. While upholding the SIR exercise, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to accept Aadhaar as an additional document for identity verification, but did not treat it as proof of citizenship. The judgment underscored the distinction between documents used to establish identity and those relied upon in citizenship-related inquiries. However, the broader question of what documents can establish citizenship has remained unsettled. Join The Wire's Youtube Membership and get exclusive content, member-only emojis, live interaction with The Wire's founders, editors and reporters and much more. Memberships to The Wire Crew start at Rs 89/month. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWtJey46brNr7qHQpN6KLQ/join

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