The Karnataka High Court ordered the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Regional Passport Officer, Bengaluru, to re-issue a passport to a 15-year-old boy whose father is inaccessible, and mother renounced Indian citizenship.
Justice M Nagaprasanna ruled that the child’s future cannot be left uncertain due to the father’s untraceability and the mother’s reckless action.
The mother and son moved the petition challenging an MEA order denying the minor son’s passport renewal because the mother had renounced Indian citizenship. The order was based on the fact that the son was no longer considered an Indian citizen after being granted custody to the mother in a divorce proceeding.
Father untraceable
The boy was born in India in March 2008 and the father returned to India from Canada in 2012 to hand over his son to the wife’s parents in Bengaluru. He subsequently lost touch with the family and has become untraceable. The mother gave up Indian citizenship in 2015 to become a Canadian citizen and is currently working in the United Kingdom.
In an ex-parte order in September 2018, the family court annulled the marriage.
The mother-son duo moved the court after the MEA refused to renew the passport that expired on July 23, 2020. The appellate authority granted a short validity passport on humanitarian grounds to allow the boy to travel abroad and reunite with his mother. The passport also expired on March 20, 2023.
The court noted that since the boy is 15 years old, he still needs to wait for another three years to get citizenship of any other country or to regain Indian citizenship. Till then he is rendered stateless.
“Merely because a minor/child has no voice in the affairs of the state qua citizenship or otherwise, the courts exercising jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, both for justice and equity, cannot shut its doors to the cry of a child, who would be rendered stateless without the aid of interference at the hands of this Court,” Justice Nagaprasanna said.
It is the endeavour of the comity of nations to eradicate statelessness of children in particular, as law abhors statelessness of children, the judge said. The court has directed the authorities to re-issue the passport to be operational till the petitioner attains the age of 18 years.