U’khand asks Tibetan refugees to surrender Indian passports
The Dehradun passport office has asked Tibetans refugees, who may have applied for or obtained passports despite “not being eligible” for one, to surrender or withdraw the same immediately, failing which they may be fined up to ₹50,000.
Tibetans have been living in India since the 1959 Tibetan Uprising against the Chinese occupation of their native land. According to the Dehradun regional passport office, two Tibetan refugees who earlier lived in Guwahati and were issued passports there, had applied for re-issuance of their passports in Dehradun, where they now live. “However, we cancelled their passports last month as they were not found eligible (for holding an Indian passport),” Rishi Angra, Dehradun regional passport officer, told HT.
In March this year, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) had issued directions to all passport offices that Tibetan applicants who were born in India between January 26, 1950 and July 1, 1987 be treated as Indian citizens by birth (under the Indian Citizenship Act), and issued passports accordingly.
The order came after a landmark Delhi High Court ruling in September 2016 in favour of a public interest litigation filed by a Tibetan refugee.
The MEA also clarified that Tibetans seeking Indian passports on the basis of being India citizens by birth are “not entitled to benefits which are exclusively for Tibetan refugees”. This means, they are required to give up their ‘refugee status’, leave their settlements and also surrender privileges and benefits conferred on them by the Central Tibetan Administration often referred to as the
Tibetan government in exile.
“Tibetans who do not fall in the category of Indian citizens by birth, are issued Identity Certificate (IC) from the Regional Passport Office, Delhi. If Tibetan refugees, who were not born in the above period or do not fulfil other criteria for being eligible for an Indian passport, have obtained passports or even applied for it, they should surrender/withdraw the same immediately, after which they can then apply for the Identity Certificate,” Angra said.
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