SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Team Herald
MARGAO: In a significant move that could bring clarity to a recent issue affecting thousands, the Bombay High Court (HC) at Goa on Monday disposed of two petitions regarding Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration.
The court directed the respondents, including the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), to consider the applications of the petitioners based on the office memorandum issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on April 4, 2024, which stated that revocation orders will be accepted in lieu of' surrender certificates.
This ruling could help other individuals seeking OCI cards by applying for revocation certificates as per the MEA’s April 4, 2024 circular (memorandum).
It may be recalled that these two petitioners had earlier sought directions from HC to the MEA to grant their respective OCI registrations.
In one of the two petitions disposed of, the counsel for a petitioner seeking an OCI card highlighted that the April 4 circular instructs Regional Passport Offices (RPOs) to treat revocation certificates as surrender certificates for the purpose of granting OCI registrations.
Regarding the other disposed petition, considering the ministry's office memorandum (circular), the HC stated that it would not delve into the requirement for a surrender certificate.
The respondents in the matter stated that the MEA memorandum takes care of the prayer of the OCI.
It may be recalled that the MEA’s April 4 memorandum "advised all Passport Issuing Authorities (PIAs) to mandatory issue (a) 'Revocation Order', in all such cases wherein instead of issuing 'Surrender Certificates', PIAs had decided to revoke the passport by invoking Section 10(3) of the Passports Act, 1967”.
"Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has now decided to accept "Revocation Certificate" as an alternative document in lieu of Surrender Certificate in (the) case of Indian nationals hailing from erstwhile Portuguese territories in India (Goa, Daman & Diu), who have acquired Portuguese nationality as per Portuguese Nationality Law, and who have been issued "Revocation Order" by the Regional Passport Officers (RPOs) instead of Surrender Certificate," read the key point in this memorandum that had been signed by MEA's Joint Secretary, Dr K J Srinivasa.
As per the interpretation of this memorandum, it meant that a significant hurdle would be removed for applicants who were previously denied the required surrender certificates needed to apply for OCI registration.
It may be recalled that prior to this April 4 memorandum, obtaining a "surrender certificate" from the passport authorities had been necessary to apply for OCI cards.
Due to this, in the recent past, there were many applicants who had moved the HC, after the previous circular of the MEA dated November 30, 2022, had stopped the PIAs from issuing surrender certificates to those who had acquired Portuguese citizenship, citing suppression of material information about acquiring foreign nationality.
Incidentally, the HC on Monday, which had clubbed five petitions connected to the Portuguese passport, only disposed of the aforementioned two petitions but kept pending the three other petitions that had challenged the revocation order by the FRRO.
While the HC ruling on the OCI was held in all five petitions, these three remaining petitions connected to the revocation order were posted for a later date.
It may be recalled that this revocation process was initiated by the RPOs based on that previous MEA's circular dated November 30, 2022, which had also made it clear that citizenship is acquired upon birth registration in Portugal and that the MEA considers the birth registration date in Portugal as the citizenship acquisition date.
