The Bombay High Court has ordered the Deputy Collector of Mumbai Suburban District to reconsider the citizenship application of a 69-year-old woman, Ila Jatin Popat, who has been living in India for over six decades. The Court made it clear that she is not an illegal migrant and should not be left stateless.
The judgment was delivered by a division bench comprising Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Dr. Neela Gokhale on April 3, 2025. The bench directed that the woman’s application for Indian citizenship must be decided within three weeks, without being influenced by a previous decision passed on December 31, 2019.
Ila Popat was born on September 6, 1955, in Kamuli, Uganda. She came to India as a 10-year-old child on February 15, 1966, along with her parents, who held valid British passports. Since then, she has continued to live in India. After the death of her parents, she married an Indian citizen and has two children, all of whom hold valid Indian passports.
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The Deputy Collector had previously rejected her application for Indian citizenship, stating that she did not meet the conditions under the Citizenship Act, 1955. The authority also said she was stateless by birth and had provided incorrect details regarding her visa.
However, the High Court took a different view.
“Admittedly, the Petitioner is not an ‘illegal migrant’. She has entered India as a minor, on valid documents of her mother and hence, her stay in India is not illegal,”
“Ideally, she ought to have taken steps to regularize her continued stay in India. Be that as it may, in the absence of any illegal act committed by her; her husband and children holding valid Indian passports; and she herself now being a senior citizen having resided in India for the past 60 years, she cannot be rendered stateless.”
Popat had made several attempts over the years to obtain Indian documentation. She first applied for an Indian passport on April 3, 1997. When asked to provide travel documents, she submitted her mother’s passport, but there was no response. She again applied on May 14, 2008, and once more, her request was met with silence. A third attempt on May 17, 2012, resulted in advice from the authorities that she needed to first register herself as an Indian citizen.
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Taking that step, she submitted an online application for citizenship on March 15, 2019, along with supporting documents. However, the authorities rejected her application, claiming she was stateless and had provided incorrect visa information.
Her lawyer, Advocate Sumedh Ruikar, pointed out that any error regarding her visa details was a genuine mistake, as mentioned in her petition. He emphasized that Popat came to India legally as a minor and cannot be classified as stateless or an illegal migrant.
The State’s Government Pleader, Advocate Poornima Kantharia, admitted in court that the petitioner cannot be called an illegal migrant. She also mentioned a letter from Ugandan authorities asking Popat to complete formalities to be recognized as a Ugandan citizen, which she did not respond to.
However, the Court noted that such inaction does not justify denying her Indian citizenship after six decades of residence in the country.
The Court referred to a previous case—Sulabha Sharad Bavadekar vs Union of India, where similar issues were discussed regarding the definition of an illegal migrant under Section 2(b) of the Citizenship Act, 1955. It concluded that unless there is clear evidence proving that her stay became illegal at a certain point, citizenship should not be denied.
