Team Herald
MARGAO: Two senior advocates Sunday questioned the legality of the government’s decision to delete the names of the persons who have registered their births in Portugal, from the electoral rolls. They also advised Goans not to surrender their Indian citizenships until the courts give a final decision on dual citizenship.
The two senior lawyers were speaking at the Advocate Joe Antao Memorial talk organised by Ganv Bhavanacho Ekvott on Portuguese Passport held at Chandor Panchayat hall.
According Adv Cleafato Coutinho, the government’s decision to delete the names from the electoral rolls without the Central government having issued a notification is not legally sound.
On his part, Adv Radharao Gracias advised Goans not to surrender their Indian citizenships until the courts give a final decision on dual citizenship.
On the removal of thousands of Goans from the electoral rolls, Adv Cleofato opined that “nobody can be divested of their rights without the Central government issuing notices under Section 9 (2) of Indian Citizenship Act.”
“The notice is a must. It is not possible to remove the names from electoral roll unless they are given notice by the Central government, because each one of them may convince the Centre that they have not obtained Portuguese passport nor taken citizenship voluntary; so, unless notice goes to them and unless they answer to that notice, it is not legal to delete their names from the electoral rolls,” he said.
Referring to the case of Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva, Adv Clefafato said that registration and transcribing of birth is citizenship under the Portuguese law.
“The Indian government asked the Portuguese government: is he (Caitu) your citizen? They said yes because he has registered / transcribed birth in Portugal and that is how he is our citizen. If our law accepts their law, you again lose citizenship,” said Cleofato.
Cleofato elaborated that these are matter of proofs, “whether you have transcribed your birth voluntary; whether you have obtained your passport voluntary are matters of proof. One sure proof is that if you have Portuguese passport or passport of other country, it is conclusive proof of having lost citizenship.”
He opined that dual citizenship concept is something that has to be accepted by the Constitution of the land. He stressed that granting or divesting of citizenship is always by the law of the land.
“Unless it is accepted by the Constitution of the land, no citizen can claim dual citizenship. Once a country does not accept dual citizenship, we cannot claim that. Our country, in number of judgements says, we have a single citizenship,” said Cleofato.
Adv Radharao, however, argued that Goans have been citizens of Portugal even before Indian citizenship was conferred upon them.
“We are in a unique position that we Goans have the benefit of dual nationality under our Constitution as there is nothing in the Constitution of India that says dual nationality is barred, save Article 9. But that is only for acquired citizenship. We have acquired nothing, we have been citizens of Portugal before we became Indian citizens,” said Adv Radharao
On that note, he suggested that those who have registered their births in Portugal, should not surrender their passports and that this should be viewed as a test case.
“Let the court give a decision on the dual nationality; until then we have dual nationality,” he said.
Goans have a strong case to argue that they have dual nationality, because, he argued, “Indian citizenship does not terminate our Portuguese nationality.”
