Citizenship Dilemma

 

 The other day somebody asked me whether I am a citizen of India. My answer was yes but I kept thinking that  how am I going to prove that I am citizen on India as I do not have a certificate of citizenship of India but I do have a variety of documents which give my date and place of birth in India and in some my nationality is listed as Indian.

I have a valid passport, Aadhar card, PAN card, voter I -card, retired Air Force I- card, my Ex-servicemen I-card, revenue receipts and land/house documents and a pension account in a PSU bank but these are not proof of my citizen ship. Various Supreme Court judgements and High Court judgement have ruled that passport, voter I card, PAN Card, Aadhar card, revenue receipts and even a bank account including the retired Air Force identity card are not proof of my citizenship. Well I could not think of anything beyond them and here lies my dilemma.

Looking at article 5 of the Constitution of India which says that a person is citizen of India if at the time of commencement of Constitution had his domicile in India and was born in the territory of  India  or  at the time of commencement of Constitution of India had his domicile in the territory of India  and  either of his parents were born in the territory of India or at the commencement of constitution f India the person had his domicile  within the territory of India for not less than 5 years immediately preceding  the commencement, , shall be citizen of India. No citizenship certificate is issued to a person born in India.

The Citizenship Act 1955 in section 3 lays down condition for claiming citizen by birth after the commencement of Constitution. It says that every person born in India  on or after 26 Jan 1950, that is the commencement of Constitution,  but before 1 Jul 1987 shall be citizen of India, if born after 1 Jul1987 but before the commencement of citizenship  (amendment )act 2003 and either of whose parents is a citizen of India at the time of his birth , if born after the commencement of citizenship(Amendment) act 2003 then either  both of his parents are citizen of India  or one of the parent is citizen of India and the other is not an illegal immigrant at the time of birth, shall be citizen of India.

It looks simple but the proof of being born in India as accepted is the birth certificate issued by the government under Registration of Birth and death Act 1969 or a birth certificate issued by the municipal authorities. Now most of senior citizen born before 1 Jul 87 may not have such a birth certificate and this will create a problem. Getting birth certificate for parents will be more troublesome as most of births used to take place at home or not registered. Even I cannot produce my birth certificate or of my parents issued by the state or municipal authorities. Most of us have used the date of birth as given in high school certificates or equivalent examination and this is what has been used in all other document including entry to Air Force or passport.

Even now as per official records in 2015-2016 only about 63% of children under the age of 5 had their birth registered. This figure now has improved considerably but a large number of births in rural area which do not take place in a hospital, health center or by Asha workers do not get reported. Of course in later stage some date of birth is entered in some document but still the birth remains unregistered thus complicating the citizenship dilemma.

In USA and most of the countries the valid passport is accepted as a proof of citizenship and in other countries India passport is accepted as a proof of Indian citizenship except in India itself.

Does it mean that I cannot prove to the satisfaction of court or authorities that I am a citizen of India. It would appear so. That is the reason India need to have a certificate or a document issued to Indian citizen that they are citizen of this country.  National Register of Citizenship could be a step in this direction but the problem will become acute if other documents where date of birth is mentioned is not accepted and only birth certificate is insisted upon.

Directed Organ Donation

Can One Will His Organs or Give a Directed Organ Donation Instruction?

 

The Transplantation of Human Organ Act (THOA )1994 is ambiguous on this issue except to put a ban of trade of human organs and coercion . But the question is can a person say in his advance declaration or in its absence the legal heir put a condition that one or more organs are to be given to a particular person or exclude some category of persons from benefiting from this transplantation? There are a variety of opinions and people argue that once you give up voluntarily then the organs are state property by virtue of it being the property of organ sharing organization or National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) in India becomes the deciding authority to decide who should get the organs based on four guiding principles.

 

A person can give a directed organ donation to a close relative while he is alive and it is permitted then it should also apply to a person who is brain dead and since he cannot make a decision or convey it hence his legal heirs have the right to decide. A few cases of one of the kidney donation, a portion of liver or blood/plasma/platelets donation are in public domain.

A person can make a will of his self acquired property then it applies to reasoning that he can decide as to whom to give or not to give his organs and his wish should be honored. Of course in this case it will be in the form of advance declaration. Moreover as long as he is alive it is his organs and after that whether he is brain dead or dead the legal heirs are the custodian of the body and hence they have a right to decide whether there is any directed organ donation or not and state should not have any say in this matter and should honor their wishes.

 

USA in 2009 has adopted this practice of directed organ donation and UK in 2010. But in India the issue is not very clear except in the state of Gujarat and Tamilnadu where directed organ donation is permitted.

 

What is required, therefore, is a provision in the THO Act permitting this directed organ donation, of course with some checks and conditions so that trade as well as profiting from this organ donation is avoided.