Tibetan sues for passport

A plea has been filed in Delhi high court by Lobsang Wangyal, a citizen of Tibetan heritage, highlighting the bureaucratic hurdles faced by Tibetan Indians while applying for an Indian passport, Mr Wangyal, whose application for an Indian passport was rejected, has pushed for implementation of the Indian Citizenship Act to allow him to legally procure an Indian passport. The court has issued notice to the ministry of external affairs and department of immigration and passports and sought their response by July 27.

As per Article 3(a) of the Indian Citizenship Act 1955, every person born in India between 26 January 1950 and 1 July 1987, is a citizen of India by birth. Under application of the same article, the Election Commission of India, in a notice dated 7 February 2014, had instructed all states and union territories of India to issue voter IDs to all Tibetans who met the aforementioned criterion. When applying for an Indian passport, Mr Wangyal furnished the voter ID with which he had cast his vote in the 2014 Indian General Elections, as proof of his citizenship. His passport application was not accepted on the grounds that though born in India in 1970, he is of Tibetan descent. Similar incidents have been reported by other Tibetans applying for the Indian passport. He said he had sought clarity and remedy through correspondence with the concerned Indian ministries. After almost two years of dealing with the Indian bureaucratic machinery, Mr Wangyal filed a writ petition with the Delhi HC, which was heard by the court on Tuesday.

Giriraj Subramanium, the lawyer representing Mr Wangyal, said, “The fact that they (Tibetans born in India between 26 Jan 1950 and 1 July 1987) are recognized as Indian citizens is also clear because the EC has given a voter ID card to each one of these particular citizens.” “Even though the Delhi HC in 2011 held that any person who is born in India within these two particular dates is considered as an Indian citizen as a matter of right and is entitled to a passport, we find that the Central government and regional passport officers are not implementing that decision.”