Senior Citizen Who Entered India On Valid Documents Of Parents Not An ‘Illegal Migrant’: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court, in a case hearing on April 3, held that a woman in her 70s who had been living in India for the last 60 years was not an ‘illegal migrant’. The division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Dr Neela Gokhale ordered the Deputy Collector of Mumbai to reconsider the applicant’s request for Indian citizenship as per the law and submit a report within three weeks.

As per the media reports, the petitioner, Ila Popat, was born in September 1955 in Uganda. She came to India in February 1966 with her parents. She was just 10 years old then. She has been living in India since then. She got married to an Indian and has two children who hold Indian passports.

Here is the timeline of her requests for an Indian passport.

• In 1997, the woman applied for an Indian passport for the first time. She furnished her mother’s passport when the authorities asked how she had entered the country. However, even after providing the proof of travel, she received no response from the authorities.

• She applied again after 11 years in 2008. Again, she was asked to provide proof of travel to India, and she submitted the necessary documents. Once more, there was no response from the authorities.

• However, she applied again for the third time in 2012. This time, the authorities asked her to first register herself as an Indian citizen. It was because her request for a passport could not be processed without a citizenship status. 

Then she applied to the concerned authorities seeking Indian citizenship, but they rejected her request for the reason that she was a stateless national and her visa details were incorrect.

The Court Order

After observing the line of events, the court ordered that the petitioner was not an illegal migrant. It said that the woman had entered India with her parents on their valid documents. So, her stay cannot be treated as illegal.

The court said in its order, "Admittedly, the Petitioner is not an 'illegal migrant'. She has entered India as a minor, on valid documents of her mother and hence, her stay in India is not illegal. Ideally, she ought to have taken steps to regularise her continued stay in India. Be that as it may, in the absence of any illegal act committed by her; her husband, and children holding valid Indian passports; she herself now being a senior citizen having resided in India for the past 60 years, she cannot be rendered Stateless”.

The Citizenship Act, 1955

The Act defined the illegal migrant. As per Section 2(1) of the Act, “illegal migrant” means a foreigner who has entered India― (i) without a valid passport or other travel documents and such other document or authority as may be prescribed by or under any law in that behalf; or (ii) with a valid passport or other travel documents and such other document or authority as may be prescribed by or under any law in that behalf but remains therein beyond the permitted period of time”.

The court directed the Collector to reassess the application without getting influenced by the 2019 order. The next hearing in the case will be on April 9, 2025.