Government reiterates passport is not proof of citizenship, cites ICAO norms for dropped endorsement

New Delhi: The government on Thursday reiterated that holding the Indian passport is not a proof of Indian citizenship. The minister of state for external affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh, told the Rajya Sabha that earlier Indian passports carried a “Citizen of India” endorsement, but the wording was progressively dropped as the passport booklet moved to International Civil Aviation Organization-compliant, machine-readable formats. He added that “nationality” has since replaced it in keeping with those international norms.

Singh was replying to an unstarred question from the CPM MP, John Brittas, who had asked whether the ministry would clarify that deletion from an electoral roll, or similar administrative action under any other statute, cannot by itself be a ground to question an existing passport holder’s citizenship or to refuse renewal.

On this, the minister said only that passports are issued under the Passports Act, 1967, and the rules made under it, without directly addressing the electoral roll question. He also said the External Affairs Ministry had neither sought nor used data generated during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls for processing passport applications or renewals, and that the question of details did not arise.

Brittas’s question follows a case he had raised with the external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, last month involving Rajagopal Ramadas, a former editor of The Telegraph, whose passport renewal was reportedly denied in West Bengal after his name was deleted from the electoral roll during the SIR exercise. Brittas had argued that the SIR process concerns the preparation of electoral rolls and is not an adjudication of citizenship under the Citizenship Act, 1955, and that an adverse remark under one statute should not automatically override a determination already made under another.

The issue had gathered wider political attention after the ministry stated at a media briefing on June 24 that a passport is a travel document and not proof of citizenship. The remark drew sharp criticism from opposition leaders, including the Rajya Sabha MP, Kapil Sibal, who asked what document would then serve as proof of citizenship if electoral roll exclusion could also be held against a person.

The ruling party responded that the ministry had merely restated a legal position long upheld by Indian courts, pointing to Section 20 of the Passports Act, which allows the government to issue a passport or travel document even to a non-citizen if considered necessary in the public interest.

Thursday’s reply in the Rajya Sabha does not appear to have gone beyond that established position, with the ministry stopping short of the specific assurance on electoral roll deletions that Brittas had sought.