Report No. 65

IV. Nationality-Indian Law

15.7. Provision in Citizenship Act.-

As regards Indian statute law relating to nationality, it may be stated that under section 5(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, a woman married to a citizen of India does not automatically become an Indian citizen, though she may make an application and be registered as a citizen of India. A decision of the question whether she should be registered, is left to the discretion of the Central Government. In substance, the scheme of the Citizenship Act is in conformity with the U.N. Convention on the Nationality of Married Woman.1

The provisions of the Citizenship Act are, however, of no use in determining the question how far as Indian woman married to a foreigner becomes a foreign citizen. Nor does that Act deal with the question how far a non-Indian woman, on marriage, acquires the nationality of another country of which her husband is a national. These questions have to be determined apart from the Act.

1. Article 3, U.N. Convention, U.N. Series, Vol. 139, p. 87.

15.8. Case law as to nationality of wife.-

It has been held1 by the Assam High Court that there is, in India, no presumption that the wife would,'by marriage, acquire the hubsand's nationality. So far as nationality is concerned, the theory of unity of the husband and wife for the purpose of determining the nationality does not seem to have found favour in England, or in other commonwealth jurisdiction.2

However, this theory seems to have been accepted in some foreign countries and it is because of that position that it may-15e desirable to provide, in the proposed law, that the nationality of the wife should be determinable separately from that of the husband.

1. Assam L.S. 1970, Assam 209 [Quinquennial Digest 1966-70, p. 275, right hand, under Citizenship Act, section 2(b)].

2. Rood Phillips Constitutional & Administrative Law, (1967), pp. 416 and 418.