Stateless woman residing in India since 1966 moves Bombay High Court for citizenship

A 66-year-old Indian origin woman living in India, who is now Stateless, has approached the Bombay High Court assailing an order by the Deputy Collector of Mumbai Suburban District rejecting her application for Indian citizenship..Advocates Aditya Chitale and Prathamesh Bhosale for the petitioner informed the Court that the petitioner was born in Uganda to Indian origin parents who held British passports.She had been residing in India since 1966 when she came with her mother.She wrongly mentioned on her online application that her visa was valid till 2019.Due to this, she was held not eligible for citizenship which she has now challenged before the High Court..Union government counsel Advait Sethna appearing for the Ministry of External Affairs informed the Court that the woman could be granted citizenship if she produces some foreign passport.He informed the Court that the petitioner had approached the British embassy (since her parents held British passports), however the embassy had refused to grant passport as she did not have any documents.He assured the Court that this was a procedure she was required to follow, and that Central government was not treating the petition as adversarial.Sethna also suggested that the petitioner could approach the embassy in Uganda and get the requisite documents from them..When Chitale sought time to take instructions in that regard, Bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and SM Modak adjourned the petition and also directed the Central government to file its response to the petition..In the petition filed through MNSQ Legal, the petitioner pointed out that she had applied for citizenship in order to get an Indian passport.She claimed to have applied for a passport on three instances and while doing so, she had tried to submit the British passports of her parents.She was asked to submit documents showing how she travelled to India, which the petitioner claimed she did not have since she came to India with her mother as a minor.When she applied for passport for the third time, the Regional Passport Office directed the petitioner to apply for citizenship in order to get a passport.Accordingly, the petitioner applied for citizenship online and the same came to be rejected prompting her to move the High Court..The petition will now be heard on August 24, 2022..[Read order]