806 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
5-C. Every person who is a citizen of India under any of the foregoing
provisions of this Part shall, subject to the Continuance of the rights of Citizenship. provisions of any law that may be made by Parliament, continue to be such citizen.
- Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any Parliament to regulate the right of provision with respect to the acquisition citizenship by law. and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.”
Sir, I would reserve my remarks alter the amendments to my draft are moved by Mr. T. T. Krishnamachari and that will complete the thing.
- Mr. President : If we take up all the other amendments, I think there will not be any end to them. First, let Dr. Ambedkar explain his proposition and then the oilier amendments may be moved.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. President, Sir, except one other article in the Draft Constitution, I do not think that any other article has given the Drafting Committee such a headache as this particular article. I do not know how many drafts were prepared and how many were destroyed as being inadequate to cover all the cases which it was thought necessary and desirable to cover. I think it is a piece of good fortune for the Drafting Committee to have ultimately agreed upon the draft which I have moved, because I feel that this is the draft which satisfies most people, if not all.
An Honourable Member : Question.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Now, Sir, this article refers to citizenship not in any general sense but to citizenship on the date of the commencement of this Constitution. It is not the object of this particular article to lay down a permanent law of citizenship for this country. The business of laying down a permanent law of citizenship has been left to Parliament, and as Members will see from the wording of article 6 as I have moved, the entire matter regarding citizenship has been left to Parliament to determine by any law that it may deem fit. The article reads—
“Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.”
The effect of article 6 is this, that Parliament may not only take away citizenship from those who are declared to be citizens on the date of the commencement of this Constitution by the provisions of article 5
- CAD, Vol. IX, dated 10th August 1949, pp. 346-49.