Parents who have been included in Assam’s register of citizens but their children have not will not be separated for now, the Centre’s top law officer KC Venugopal promised the Supreme Court on Monday.
The top court was hearing a request filed by a non-profit that complained there were 60 children in detention centres because their citizenship was yet to be established. In these 60 cases, the application said, one or both parents had made it to the citizens’ register but the children were detained because they could not clear the citizenship test.
“I cannot conceive children being sent to detention centres. Where parents have been given citizenship through National Register of Citizens, the children will not be sent to detention centres for now,” Attorney General KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde told the government to file an affidavit in four weeks.
A child born in India after 2004, when the citizenship law was amended, is considered an Indian citizen only if both his parents are citizens. In case only one of the parent is an Indian, the child will be considered a citizen if the other is not an illegal migrant at the time of his birth.
This means that if one of the parents is not able to prove his or her citizenship, the child would not be counted as an Indian citizen.
