Polity & Governance GS 2 In the news 7 times

Citizenship Act, 1955

The Statutory Framework After Article 11

Article 11 expressly empowers Parliament to legislate on citizenship beyond the constitutional provisions, and the Citizenship Act, 1955 is that law — it governs citizenship acquisition and loss for all persons after the constitutional commencement-date rules of Articles 5–8 ceased to be the operative test.

Key details

The Act originally provided five modes of acquiring citizenship: birth, descent, registration, naturalisation, and incorporation of territory.
Amendments in 1986 and 2003 progressively narrowed birth-based (jus soli) citizenship, tying it to the citizenship/legal status of at least one parent.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 added an expedited path — a reduced naturalisation residency requirement of five years (down from eleven) — for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian persons who entered India from Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan on or before 31 December 2014.

In the news

● Tracked since March 02, 2026 · last seen July 19, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes

19 Jul '26

Constituent Assembly Debates on Citizenship: Religion, Birth and Refugees

Polity & Governance

25 Jun '26

Citizenship Proof in India: What Passport, Aadhaar, and Voter ID Actually Establish

Polity & Governance

31 May '26

Election Commission's Power to Examine Citizenship for Electoral Rolls: Supreme Court Verdict on SIR

Polity & Governance

27 May '26