Constitution of India Day 7

 

All the laws contained in the Constitution of India are meaningless without the people. The people living in India are categorised into two groups a) Citizens b) Aliens. The citizens of India enjoy all the civil and political rights in the country while the aliens do not enjoy all of these rights.

It is important to note that there is a concept of only ‘single citizenship’ and there is no separate citizenship for states. In other words, there is no dual citizenship. When we say the citizens of India owe allegiance to India, it means their allegiance is to the whole of India not merely to their individual states. 

Any sub-nationalist allegiance which transcends national allegiance is meaningless and holds no legal ground by virtue of the citizenship conferred by the Constitution of India to its people.

Part -II of the Constitution of India is CITIZENSHIP (Article 5 to 11)

Let’s look at them one by one.

Article 5 : Citizenship at the commencement of the Constitution.

The current Article-5 defines citizenship at the time of commencement of the Constitution of India i.e. on November 26, 1949 (w.r.t. Article 5). As per this article, every person who has her/his domicile in the territory of India shall be a citizen of India provided s/he fulfills any of the following three conditions:

1. S/he was born in the territory of India

2. Either of her/his parents was born in the territory of India

3. S/he has been an ordinary resident in the territory of India for not less than five years immediately before the commencement of the Constitution of India i.e. on November 26, 1949 (w.r.t. Article 5).

Please note that though the entire Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950 and this date is chosen as the date of the commencement of the Constitution of India, some of the provisions of the Constitution of India pertaining to citizenship, elections, etc. come into force on November 26, 1949 itself.

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PS: The above texts are ‘not the exact texts’ copied from the Constitution of India.They have been modified in simple language for the ease of understanding. Due consideration has been given to ensure that ‘the spirit and the meaning’, as contained in the Constitution, remains the same. Please refer to the Constitution of India for the original texts. Please feel free to point out any discrepancy that comes across you. We shall be happy to modify the same.