Very few Indians may be even remotely be conscious of this fact. So much so that, while Englishmen are aware of shortcomings of a written word and enacted 'The General Clauses Act,1897' to bring uniformity in interpretation of the statutes by different judges. It contains two cardinal principles for the interpretation of the statutes, namely the Golden rule and the Mischief rule. While the former allows a judge to take another meaning of a word than the usual, the latter imphasises the need to ascertain the intention of the legislature behind insertion of any piece of legislation. If an enactment has been made, it must have effect. There is no such thing as 'idle legislation'. But the leading Constitutional lawyers in this country do not seem to be aware of these elementary facts. That is why the EC promptly debars a bona fide Indian from contesting in an Assembly election, if he so much as voluntarily obtains citizenship of a foreign state but submits in response to an SC notice asking it to comment on the status of foreigners, who are citizen by registration this "It is respectfully submitted that the EC has no comment to offer on this Constitutional question, as it does not pertain to conduct of election or to disqualification of candidate."
Is it not fantastic that just because the word 'Indian' and the word 'Nationality' do not appear anywhere in the whole Constitution of India, Indians not only cease to exist in India: there nationality at once is reduced to nullity! Art 58(1)(a) reads 'No person shall be eligible for election as President, unless he is a citizen of India.' Who in India will not be a citizen of India? The writers of the Constitution, who could not countenance even an Indian in the Constitutional definition of the 'citizen of India'(Art9) if he took foreign citizenship will be so remiss as to fail in keeping foreigners out? Our legal luminaries have been telling 'yes'
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On 14Apr2004, the EC debarred Mr Ajit Singh's son from contesting in an Assembly election, as he was holding a British passport at the time.
ReplyDeletePrior to 2004 elections to Loksabha, a letter with heading 'How's she contesting?'had appeared in 'Letters to Editor' section of 'The Pioneer'by Mr BC Dutta, if memory serves me right.He had cited a case in which an Indian who had taken citizenship of Italy was not allowed to contest even a Municipal election.So what about 'Reciprocal treatment'?