Article 10: Continuance of the rights of citizenship

Every person who is or is deemed to be a citizen of India under any of the foregoing provisions of this Part shall, subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by Parliament, continue to be such citizen.

Background

Draft Article 5C (Article 10) was debated on 10th 11th and 12th August 1949. It was not initially part of the Draft Constitution, 1948. Instead, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee proposed the insertion of the following as Draft Article 5C: 'Every person who is a citizen of India under any of the foregoing provisions of this Part shall subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by Parliament, continue to be such citizen. Parliament to regulate the right of citizenship by law.'  This Draft Article clarified that people declared as citizens under the preceding citizenship articles continued to be so subject to any law made by the Parliament. While there were no substantive discussions around this Article, one member moved a motion to delete this article as he believed that it was unnecessary and redundant and that Draft Article 6 (Article 11) was sufficient for these purposes. The Chairman of the Drafting Committee reiterated that the Articles on citizenship were temporary in nature; it was to be left to the future Parliament to enact a comprehensive citizenship code. The Assembly adopted this article without any amendments on 12 August 1949.