The introduction of CAB and NRC on December 12th has raised a lot of concerns within the nation with regard to their citizenship and how to prove their Indian citizenship;
As it stands, the government have not come to a decision as of yet with regard to the acceptable documents to prove citizenship.
The courts of law have ruled that providing Aadhaar, Pan Card, Driving license as proof of citizenship would not suffice.
With regard to Aadhaar, though it a used to identify a citizen at a national level, under the Aadhaar act, a person can make an application for a Aadhaar card after completing 182 days of residency.
It is well known to the general public that PAN cards are used for payment of income tax in India. Moreover, foreign citizens, Entities, NRI’s can obtain PAN cards when they are bound to pay taxes in India.
So these documents, cannot be considered as substantive proof of citizenship, but can be used to supplement or support a claim made to prove citizenship of the concerned individual.
Our opinion with regard to this issue, the best way to prove citizenship is by submitting documents related to date of birth or place of birth by way of birth certificates. We say this as Section 3 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 deals with “Citizenship by birth”.
When the Citizenship Act, 1955 was enforced in India, Section 3 stated that individuals born in India on or before January 1,1950 will be deemed to be an Indian citizen. Thus, the Indian citizenship law had accepted the principle of “Jus Soli” i.e birth right citizenship.
This was later changed following the amendment of the citizenship act in 1986, which only granted individuals who were born between January 1,1950 and July,1 1987 automatic birth right citizenship.
Another condition was imposed where one of the parents would have to be an Indian citizen for granting automatic birth right citizenship for individuals who were born in India after 1st July 1987.
In 2003 another amendment was made to the act which stated that those born after December 3, 2004 can only obtain birth right citizenship if one of the parents are Indian citizens and the other parent is not a illegal migrant.
Moreover, an individual who is born outside India has to show Indian roots or “ Descent” to prove citizenship.
With regard to the Assam NRC documents; the government has stated that every individual who migrated after March 24th, 1971 will be considered and regarded as an illegal migrant. However, one can prove citizenship by showing that one or one’s ancestors had been residing in Assam before the said cut- off date.
Moreover, there are two sets of documents which can be provided to be citizenship through ones ancestors.
We have separated this into Set A & Set B of documents required. Please be vary that these documents are only with regard to individuals from Assam.
Set A : [ Issued before cut off date ]
- 1951 NRC
- Electoral Roll(s) up to 24th March 1971(midnight)
- Land & Tenancy Records
- Citizenship Certificate
- Permanent Residential Certificate
- Passport
- LIC
- Any Govt. Issued License/Certificate
- Govt. Service/ Employment Certificate
- Bank/Post office accounts
- Birth Certificate
- Board/ University Educational Certificate
- Court Records/Processes
Set B: [ Issued to establish a relationship with an ancestor, father, mother or grandmother , grandfather , great grandfather or grandmother, etc. ]
- Birth Certificate.
- Land Document
- Board/University Certificate
- Bank/LIC/Post Office Records
- Circle Officer/ GP Secretary Certificate in case of married women
- Electoral Roll
- Ration card
- Any other legally accepted document.