This article is written by MS SHAHEEN HIRANI, a 4th year student from Keshav Memorial College Of Law.
Every human being residing at any part of the world needs a validation for he’s presence and abiding within a country, if this doesn’t exist it would go back to the time of early humans when nothing of this ever made sense and thus the concept of Citizenship emerged.
Citizenship is a tool or significance of a relationship between individual and state. The individual owes allegiance and in return is entitled to protection. Citizenship not only comes with freedom but also with due responsibilities. Benefits like political rights, right to vote, right to hold public office etc are extended to the citizens and several responsibilities namely taxation, military services are followed by. Therefore citizenship brings a sense of security for an individual in country where he resides and has the citizenship of.
CITIZENSHIP IN INDIAN CONSTITUTION
Article 5 to 8 of the constitution of India, says that 4 classes of people can be considered as citizen of India at the commencement of the constitution that is (26-1-1950), and the four classes are:
1.Persons domicile in India
2.Persons who migrated from Pakistan
3.Persons who migrated to Pakistan
4.Persons living abroad (other than Pakistan)
Under article 5, it is inscribed that- every person who has domicile in India is one-
.Who was born in territory of India or
.Either of whose parents was born in territory of India or
.Who has been resident in territory of India for not less than 5 years immediately after commencement.
Shall be a citizen of India.
Under the Indian Constitution there is only one domicile of the country and no separate domicile of state.
Therefore this Indian citizen are categorised into two types-
.Indian Citizens
.Non-citizens (who acquired foreign citizenship)
NON-RESIDENT INDIANS (NRIs)
An Indian citizen who stays abroad for employment/business for an uncertain duration or stay abroad is a non-resident.
According to GOI, NRIs are those citizens of India who are not living in the country for a very longer period but holds the nationality of India. A fair estimation made by the Ministry of External Affairs that 32 millions NRIs are residing outside and these calculation increases year by year.
There are eligibility criteria for an NRI before proceeding with Indian legal activities. The proof of identity for any NRI is an essential document. Therefore the criteria required is mentioned below-
.Indian Passport- every NRI must have to hold the passport issued by the Indian Government.
.Citizenship- being NRI, he/she must have to be citizen of India under the act of citizenship 1955. Either parents or Grand parents have to be citizen of India.
.Spouse- one must be the spouse of an India citizen or person with criteria mentioned above.
CITIZENSHIP OF NRIs
The citizenship to NRIs is in the form of ‘overseas citizenship of India’.
A person is an NRI if he doesn’t satisfy the following conditions:
.Stayed in India for at least 182 days during the previous year.
.He is resident in India for at least 9 out of 10 years preceding the previous year.
.He is resident of India for at least 730 days during 7 years preceding the previous year.
He is a full fledged considered as the Citizen of India, the only difference is that the domicile is changed but other than that he continues to remain as the citizen of India.
NRI as per Indian Income Tax Act
Under sec 6 of the Indian Income Tax act, a person who is a citizen of India is considered as NRI if he resides out of India.
An individual whose total taxable Indian income exceeds Rs 15lakh, then he is considered to be resident if the person-
.visit India for a period of 120 days or more in last year.
.if he has been in India for 365 days or more immediately preceding 4 years.
If total tax Indian income of a person is up to Rs15lakh, that person will continue to remain NRI if he visit India within 180 days.
NRI MARRIAGES
Marriage is one of the most fundamental requirement not only in Indian society but around the world and therefore the concept of marriage has been accounted legally and in that the marriage related to NRIs are taken into greater consideration as its matter of grave sensitivity and itself is complicated. The marriage of NRI can be categorised into 5 kinds and those are:
.NRI male and Indian female
.NRI female and Indian male
.Both Indian spouses who in time being migrate outside India together or separately.
.Both NRI spouses who marry under Indian marriage laws either in India or foreign country.
.An Indian spouse(male or female) marrying a foreign spouse under Indian marriage law either in India or outside.
As the categories of NRI marriage looks so piled up and complicated the same are the issues dealt with regard to NRI marriages because, NRI marriages are transforming living standard and economic welfare of most families.
These are creating problems for many families for which there is no remedy In law or civil society.
A case law in regard to NRI marriage is-
.DIPAK BANERJEE VS SUDIPTA BANERJEE
In this Supreme Court, the husband questioned the Indian jurisdiction of Indian court to check out proceedings initiated by wife under sec 125 for maintenance, simplifying that no court in India had jurisdiction in international sense to undertake such proceedings as he claimed to be citizen of America and his wife domicile followed his domicile.
Court held that when there is conflict of law of that nation must be applied.
Therefore the court upheld husband issue as tenable because it was court within whose jurisdiction she ordinarily resided.
.KARM KUMAR VS UNION OF INDIA AND ORS
The issue was whether a citizen of India residing in other country can claim a right to represent India in an international event.
By judgement made on 1st October 2008, judge allowed first prayer as regard participation of OCI’s in national tournaments. Several directions were issued to government of India to frame uniformity in the matters of representation. Later it was declared that govt shall contemplate and work must be done in the best interest of sports in country.
The concept of NRIs is vividly different when illustrate it with the powers, rights, responsibilities legalised for the Indian citizen. One major right or privilege is that they are considered as citizen of India no matter where they reside or what they do. The most ultimatum one individual require is a recognition from any country and therefore India does provide that to greater and major extent.
REFERENCES
1.Citizenship and emigration law- S.R.MYNENI
2.lawpage.in
3.wisenri.com
4.wikipedia.org
5.lawy
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