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UPSC Prelims 2021 · Polity · Making, Preamble & Citizenship
With reference to India, consider the following statements:
- There is only one citizenship and one domicile.
- A citizen by birth only can become the Head of State.
- A foreigner once granted citizenship cannot be deprived of it under any circumstances.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) 1 and 3
- (d) 2 and 3
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: (a) 1 only
Only the single-citizenship statement survives.
Statement by statement
1. ✓ CORRECT India has single citizenship — no separate State citizenship as in the USA — and the Constitution speaks of one domicile, “domicile in the territory of India” (Art. 5).
2. ✗ WRONG Art. 58 asks only that the President be a citizen of India, 35 or older and qualified for the Lok Sabha. A naturalised citizen is eligible. (In the USA only a natural-born citizen can be President.)
3. ✗ WRONG The Citizenship Act, 1955 (Sec. 10) lets the Centre deprive a naturalised or registered citizen, for example for fraud, disloyalty, or trading with the enemy during a war.
The idea
The Constitution (Arts. 5–11) covers citizenship only at its start. Parliament regulates the rest through the Citizenship Act, 1955, which sets out five ways to acquire it (birth, descent, registration, naturalisation, incorporation of territory) and three ways to lose it (renunciation, termination, deprivation).
Arts. 5–11: at commencement → Art. 11: Parliament regulates → Citizenship Act 1955: acquire 5 · lose 3
Why the others are wrong
(b) Imports the US rule. India’s President can be a naturalised citizen.
(c) Statement 3 fails: deprivation under Sec. 10 of the Citizenship Act is exactly for such citizens.
(d) Both 2 and 3 are borrowed from the idea that citizenship by birth is special. In Indian law it is not.
The trap
“Under any circumstances” is an absolute. Absolutes about citizenship are almost always wrong.
🔒 Lose citizenship: Renunciation (voluntary) · Termination (takes another country’s) · Deprivation (by government order, for naturalised/registered citizens).
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