The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has clarified that an Indian passport is primarily a travel document issued to regulate the departure of citizens and is not intended as proof of citizenship. This statement comes amidst a debate on its use for verifying citizenship, particularly concerning electoral rolls, and has drawn criticism from opposition parties.
Amid the passport row, Shashi Tharoor has proposed legal changes to simplify proof of Indian citizenship.
Government sources have clarified that a passport has never been considered proof of citizenship in India, a stance consistent for the past 12 years and rooted in the Passport Act 1967. This clarification, reiterated by the Ministry of External Affairs, has drawn criticism from opposition leaders and public figures.
A clarification by the ministry of external affairs that the passport is not a proof of citizenship has once again brought to the fore the need for a legal framework to provide citizens with a single document to establish they are Indians.
A special NIA court in Ahmedabad has sentenced six Pakistani nationals to eight years of rigorous imprisonment for their involvement in the 2019 mid-sea seizure of 330 kg of 'brown heroin' off Gujarat's Jakhau coast. An Indian man, allegedly the intended recipient, was acquitted due to benefit of doubt. The National Investigation Agency had probed the case, alleging funds from the smuggling were intended for a terror organisation.
The legislation is aimed at streamlining various services related to immigration and foreigners, including their entry, exit and stay in India.
Official sources on Thursday had said the MEA is processing the Karnataka government's request to cancel Prajwal's diplomatic passport. Currently, he is believed to be in Germany.
Liquor baron Vijay Mallya's passport has been suspended.
It is understood that Vijay Mallya left the country for UK on March 2 using a diplomatic passport issued to him by virtue of him being a sitting Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal also said that no visa is required for diplomatic passport holders to travel to Germany.
Such a legislation, the panel said, should be made applicable not only to the NRIs but also to those individuals who come within the definition of 'Overseas Citizens of India' as laid down in the Citizenship Act, 1955.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia said the actual involvement of Gonsalves and Ferreira in any terrorist act has not surfaced from any third-party communications.
Three suspected members of a Sikh extremist group on Interpol's red notice watchlist were arrested during a joint operation by the Philippine government agencies this month, according to an official.
Khalistani separatist Lakhbir Singh alias 'Rode', a designated terrorist under the Indian law, has died recently in Pakistan, where he had taken refuge after his uncle Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was killed in 1984 during an army action, officials said on Tuesday.
A list of at least 20 individuals has been sent to the immigration department to prevent them from flying overseas.
The Ministry of Home Affairs amended its guidelines on October 12 to include the chairman, managing director or chief executive officer of each public sector bank on the list of authorities who can issue requests for opening look-out circulars against whom an FIR is yet to be filed.
The ministry of home affairs on Tuesday clarified India's stand of giving Asylum to Myanmar refugees, saying that the country is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol thereon.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli directed the Centre to decide on granting him a long-term visa, to enable him to apply for Indian Citizenship.
Some believe that, as prime minister, Sunak will be particularly friendly to India and that he would return the Kohinoor and do similar gestures to his motherland. Such wishful thinking is not likely to materialise as he will act in the best interests of the UK and will not even appear to favour India, argues Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Courts must not play coroner but doctors to save legal or Constitutional rights from demise before they are extinguished, the Delhi High Court said on Wednesday while granting bail to a UAPA accused who was in custody for more than 12 years as an undertrial in a bomb blast case.
The deported Rohingyas would face persecution in Myanmar but also, possibly, elimination.
No theory would ever justify the public humiliation of the acting head of the consulate of a friendly country. Whatever be the eventual solution, grievous damage has been done to her personally and to the relations between the two countries, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
