Bill bars Pakistan, Bangladesh citizens from overseas Indian cardholder status

It aims to address gaps in the existing law by expanding eligibility to include spouses and minor children of Indian citizens and clarifying residency requirements for naturalization.

Who it concerns: The Bill affects individuals seeking registration as an 'overseas Indian cardholder,' including citizens of other countries who were formerly Indian citizens, their descendants, minor children of Indian citizens, and spouses of Indian citizens. It also affects the Central Government, which is granted powers to register, grant rights, and cancel these registrations.

What the bill does

• Renames 'overseas citizen of India' to 'overseas Indian cardholder' in Section 2.
• Allows registration of spouses of Indian citizens if the marriage has been registered and subsisted for at least two years, subject to security clearance.
• Allows registration of minor children where both parents are Indian citizens or one parent is an Indian citizen.
• Explicitly excludes persons who are or have been citizens of Pakistan, Bangladesh, or other specified countries from eligibility.
• Clarifies that cardholders do not have rights to vote, hold public office, or be appointed to certain high judicial or executive positions.
• Allows the Central Government to relax the 12-month residency requirement for naturalization by up to 30 days in special circumstances.
• Provides grounds for cancellation of registration, including fraud, disaffection towards the Constitution, or dissolution of the marriage for those registered as spouses.

Also in the document

• The Bill explicitly bars citizens of Pakistan and Bangladesh from obtaining the overseas Indian cardholder status.
• It introduces a requirement for prior security clearance for spouses of Indian citizens applying for the card.
• The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2011 (Bill No. XLVIII of 2011), though the title provided in the prompt is 2013.