In November 2013, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, in an order had determined that Benaulim MLA Caetano Rosario Silva, better known as Caitu, had ceased to be a citizen of India from the date he registered his birth with the Central Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Lisbon as Portuguese national. Three years later the High Court of Bombay at Goa has referred the case back to the Home Ministry asking the competent authority in the ministry to hear the case afresh and decide on it within three months. While the High Court order might give thousands of Goans who have registered their births in Portugal hope, it is pertinent to note the Court referred the order back to the ministry on purely technical grounds.
The main points of the order were that the principle of natural justice had been violated and that the competent authority had not heard the matter. It stressed that the matter at the Home Ministry was heard by the Joint Secretary and the order was passed by the Deputy Secretary. The court held that if the competent authority is the Deputy Secretary, he alone should hear the case. It also holds that there is no record in the MHA order to show that the MLA voluntarily got his birth registered in the Central Registry in Lisbon. All this does not mean that the court has decided that Silva is not a Portuguese national. The High Court order is precise in stating that the ‘rival contentions of the parties are left open’, which means that the question of Silva’s citizenship is still open to interpretation and it is the competent authority in the Ministry of Home Affairs that will have to decide it.
While Silva’s case goes back to the Ministry of Home Affairs, there is the question of some 27,000 names of Goans who have registered their births in Portugal that stand to be deleted from the electoral rolls. Silva, the MLA, gets a reprieve and will possibly contest the polls again. If there is still a question of whether Silva is a Portuguese national or not, of whether he holds dual citizenship or not, of whether he has voluntarily got his birth registered in Portugal or not, then can the Election Commission of India delete names from the electoral rolls because these names have been registered in the Central Registry is Lisbon? That’s a question that remains unanswered, even as the 2017 polls are just months away and a large number of electors stand to lose their voting rights.
The issue of dual citizenship affecting thousands of Goans who have registered their births in Portugal is still without an answer. It is a pressing issue and needs closure but the authorities have not shown any haste in going about it. An authority to decide on the dual citizenship that was promised is yet to be set up in Goa. It had been announced that the District Collectors would be empowered as the special authorities in the case, but the powers are yet to be accorded to them. But even these special ‘designated authorities’ would not decide on the question of dual citizenship but merely act as facilitators to those who have registered their births in Portugal and now opt to retain their Indian citizenship. While Silva accepted the High Court order as a birthday gift, his case has not ended. He has to go back to the Ministry of Home Affairs and prove that the charges of he holding dual citizenship are false. The ministry is unlikely to slip up on technicalities for a second time. The question of citizenship has to be decided and Silva’s fate, and that of thousands of others, depends on the ruling of the competent authority in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
