AKBAR KHAN ALAM KHAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal raises the question whether the suit filed by the appellants was properly dismissed on the ground that a civil court had no jurisdiction to entertain it. The Courts below held that a civil court's jurisdiction to entertain the suit was barred by S. 9 of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

(2.) The appellants had filed the suit for a declaration that they were citizens of India and for an injunction restraining the defendants from removing them from India. The defendants were the Union of India, the State of Madhya Pradesh and the District Magistrate, Jhabua, in Madhya Pradesh. The appellants stated in the plaint that they were citizens of India and had not ceased to be such citizens. They said that in the beginning of 1953 they went to Pakistan for a temporary visit without a passport but when they wanted to return they were compelled to obtain Parkistani passports. They stated that they obtained these passports only as a device for securing their return to India and had really been compelled to obtain the passports against their will. They further stated that, therefore, they could not be said to have acquired citizenship of Pakistan. They also stated that they had made all efforts for the cancellation of the passports and to obtain permission to stay in India permanently but were unsuccessful. They said that the State of Madhya Pradesh served on them an order dated November 11, 1955, under S. 3 (2) of the Foreigners Act, 1946, asking them to leave the country. They contend that this order was illegal and without justification as they were not foreigners.

(3.) In the written statement filed by the defendants it was stated that the appellants had left India between March and May, 1948, and they returned for the first time on a temporary Pakistani passport sometime in the early part of1955:It was also stated that the permits granted to them to remain in India were extended from time to time and ultimately up to about October,1955, and thereafter they were served with orders to quit India. The defendants further stated that the appellants were not citizens of India as they had voluntarily acquired Pakistani citizenship by obtaining passports from that country.