Grant resident permit to man born in Singapore, orders HC

The Madras High Court directed the Centre on Thursday to grant a resident permit to a 32-year old man of Indian descent who remained stateless despite living in the country since migrating from Singapore as a toddler. "It is singularly an unfortunate case wherein a person, for all practical reasons an Indian, has to fight for conferment of Indian citizenship for over three decades," Justice V Parthiban said.

He noted that the plea of the petitioner, who had migrated from Singapore as a three-month-old, got stuck in procedural complexities and bureaucratic web all these years. The judge directed the Union home ministry to consider granting him citizenship in terms of the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 as a special case, and, if necessary, by relaxing any procedural requirements within three months.

Petitioner Philip Mammen Koshy, whose father is an Indian citizen and mother a Singapore national, has sought to regularise his stay in India and grant of a long-term visa or resident permit. The petitioner has said he has been living in India since he was three months of age and despite his uninterrupted stay in the country from 1986, he remained stateless and was denied all rights enjoyed by a citizen of the country.

The judge said this revealed how bureaucratic apathy and callousness could push a person of legitimate Indian descent into a pathetic predicament of being reduced to a stateless existence. "The agonising wait for all the years since 1986 is... because of procedural complexity and bureaucratic web as it seems that truly a Kafkaesque story is being played out by the authorities concerned," the judge observed.

Unfortunately, it appeared that the petitioner's claim was caught up in procedural wrangles and rigmarole, resulting in an abject negation of his right to be a citizen of this country, he said. "A person, who is admittedly of Indian descent and whose Singapore passport has already been revoked long ago in 1997/1998 itself, cannot be reduced to the level of a refugee in his own country and cannot remain a stateless person having no right whatsoever at all for his lifetime," the judge said.

After his birth in October 1986, the petitioner was issued a Singapore passport on December 4 that year. He had migrated to India along with his parents when he was three months of age and since been living in the country without any interruption. He had applied for Indian citizenship in 1996 before the Chennai collector with all the relevant documents.

Meanwhile, the Singapore passport expired on October 15, 1997. It was briefly extended till March 12, 1998 and thereafter, no further extension was granted. Since no action was forthcoming from the authorities here, the petitioner made a representation to the chief minister's cell in 2000.

In response, he was informed that the papers for the grant of Indian citizenship were lost due to shifting of the Collectorate to a new premises. He then filed a fresh application and the Union home ministry directed him to approach the chief immigration officer, Chennai for grant of a resident permit or a long-term visa.

But the officer said he was not in a position to grant a resident permit or a long-term visa. This made the petitioner approach the court.

(With inputs from agencies.)