Constitution Section 7 — Rights of citizenship of certain migrants to Pakistan

Part II — CITIZENSHIP

Constitutional

Summary

This section overrides the earlier rules on citizenship. It says that anyone who moved from India to the area that is now Pakistan after March 1, 1947, is not considered a citizen of India. However, this rule does not apply to someone who later came back to India with a legal permit for resettlement or permanent return, and that person is treated as having migrated to India after July 19, 1948, for the purpose of gaining citizenship under the earlier article.

Official Text

Notwithstanding anything in articles 5 and 6, a person who has after the first day of March, 1947, migrated from the territory of India to the territory now included in Pakistan shall not be deemed to be a citizen of India:Provided that nothing in this article shall apply to a person who, after having so migrated to the territory now included in Pakistan, has returned to the territory of India under a permit for resettlement or permanent return issued by or under the authority of any law and every such person shall for the purposes of clause (b) of article 6 be deemed to have migrated to the territory of India after the nineteenth day of July, 1948.