Have you registered the child birth with British embassy
since both you and your wife are British citizens your son would also be a British citizen by birth
your son would not be an Indian citizen and not entitled to Indian passport
Show Cause Notice | Passport renewal rejection
Hi, Myself and my wife are British citizens and OCIs living in India since 2011. Our son born in India in July 2013 got his first Indian passport in January 2017. The passport was expiring in January 2022 hence we applied for Renewal for his passport in January 2022. On 3rd of March we asked to furnish a declaration regarding his Indian citizenship. We submitted a declaration in person that our son is an Indian citizen by birth and does not hold nationality or passport of any other country. After this the RPO rejected the application stating that the applicant is not a citizen of India and issued a SCN via email that we are required to furnish a proper explanation regarding the circumstances under which we had suppressed the material information in your passport application. Why action should not be taken to reject the application. Please guide on how to respond to this SCN. We have never suppressed any infornation, we had submitted copies of our Biritsh passport with the renewal application. We were under that impression that our son will get Indian passport renewed because he is an Indian citizen by birth. If not then he shouldn't have got his first Indian passport in 2017. Appreciate your help and expert guidance. Regards, SB.
Asked 4 years ago in Civil Law
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8 Answers
Thanks Ajay, No, we didn't register the child birth with British embassy but we have applied for his British passport. In that case RPO shouldn't have issued him the passport in 2017 itself and they have not accepted the renewal application at the PSK !!! Renewal application was verified by the APO at PSK, police verification was also done. Have we committed a punishable offence here? Will the passport office close the matter once we submit our response to the SCN?
Asked 4 years ago
Indian Passport was wrongly issued for your child
passport office would impose penalty on you of around Rs 10000 or so
You need to reply to the show cause notice legally and then follow up the same. Rpo may conduct hearings for the same if required. You can also appeal against the order of rpo
In the show cause notice you are accused suppression of material information in the passport application. From scn it is not clear as what material information is suppressed by you. A notice to show cause against intended action without disclosing the exact cause cannot be answered. The scn does not state…
- Whether passport obtained is obtained by suppression of what material fact.
- Whether citizenship of applicant is questioned.
- Further, the passport is not sought to impounded.
To show a proper cause, you can first seek clarification as to what material fact is not disclosed and than issue a proper reply. Any adverse order passed without disclosing the reasons for order is open to challenge in appeal to Central Government or directly in High Court by writ petition.
If you have received a show cause notice, then it becomes your duty to issue a reply notice.
You should deny all the allegations and averments mentioned in the show cause notice including the allegations of suppression of material information, provided you had not suppressed the facts at the time of obtaining the passport initially.
You both being foreign citizens, your child may have taken birth in India, but becasue both the parents are foreign citizens, the child may not acquire Indian citizenship by birth. .
A person born in India on or after 3rd December, 2004 is considered citizen of India by birth if both the parents are citizens of India or one of the parents is a citizen of India and the other is not an illegal migrant at the time of his birth.
Therefore the Indian passport obtained for your child by suppressing the fact that both the parents are foreign may be considered as an offence under the Citizenship Act.
However you can give explanation about the circumstances under which you obtained the Indian passport at that time and other details attached to your reply notice.
You may consult an Advocate and proceed as suggested.
The passport authorities if not satisfied with your reply and have decided to take legal course of action through criminal laws, then they may register a criminal complaint agaisnt you for playing fraud and obtainment the passport with false information.
Sometimes they may let you off by directing you to pay fine on this.
However they may not entertain the renewal of passport and the current passport may also be cancelled if found to be issued wrongly.
As you and your wife are both British citizens, your child would be automatically be deemed a British citizen irrespective of the fact that he was born in India.
You need to give a proper and detailed reply to the show cause notice received by you from the original passport office stating the mistake on your part in the said application owing to the fact that you are not aware of the laws of India.
Your child is not entitled to an Indian passport and the earlier issuance of the passport in 2017 was a mistake on the part of the regional passport office. Also, you have applied for a British passport for your child and as per Indian laws no person can have dual nationality.
Dear Client,
The Constitution of India and existing laws do not allow dual citizenship.It is a condition wherein an individual is considered the citizen of two countries. Such an individual will enjoy all the rights and privileges as enjoyed by any bonafide citizen of either countries.In India, it is punishable offence if the individual continues to use Indian passport after acquiring the nationality of another country.As per the law in India, it is not allowed to hold two citizenships at the same time. It is being allowed in some other countries like the United States, but to hold two passports are not allowed under Indian Law.
Thanks & Regards
