CHANDIGARH: Who would have thought that at a Punjabi girl, who is little over six years of age, would hold the key to changing lives of thousands of illegal immigrants in Britain. After an 18-month-long legal battle, the decision on stateless applications in the UK has been allowed by the Royal Courts of Justice. A child born on or after December 3, 2004, to Indian parents outside India, who has not been registered by the Indian authorities, was deemed stateless and entitled to be registered for British citizenship.
This means thousands of potential families will now be able to settle in the UK. The application of the minor ‘MK’ (claimant) vs The Secretary of State for the Home Department (defendant) came up for hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice in February this year. It was the first of its kind application put in for the applicant by the team of Gurpal Oppal of UK-based Charles Simmons Immigration Solicitors.The application was based on Paragraph 3 of Schedule 2 to the British Nationality Act 1981.
Talking to TOI, Oppal said, “The application for British citizenship was made for MK on the basis of an Indian child born in the UK to Indian parents, both of whom had overstayed. It was argued that she had not been registered with the overseas Indian authorities as an Indian national and was therefore stateless and entitled to become a British citizen.”
“A person is stateless if he has no nationality. Ability to acquire a nationality is irrelevant for these purposes. The biggest difficulty was obtaining ‘confirmation from the Indian authorities (in one version it is ‘the authorities in India’) that the birth has not been registered in accordance with Indian law and that she is not a national of India…,” he added.
The parents of the applicant (who cannot be identified for legal reasons) are over the moon following the success of the application.If their child is granted the British citizenship, they are likely to get a residence too.
News Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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