NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
New Delhi, India, August 12, 2025: The Delhi High Court has clarified that its earlier order granting Indian citizenship to a 17-year-old girl born in Andhra Pradesh to US-based Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders should be treated as a one-off case and not a legal precedent.
The girl, Rachita Francis Xavier, was born in 2006 to parents who had relinquished their Indian passports and become US citizens before her birth. She has lived in India all her life. In May 2024, a single-judge bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh ruled that Rachita could not be considered an illegal migrant, recognised her as a “person of Indian origin” under the Citizenship Act, and directed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to grant her citizenship under Section 5(4), which allows for naturalisation in special circumstances. She was granted Indian citizenship on July 31, 2024.
The MHA later appealed, arguing that the ruling’s interpretation of “person of Indian origin” was overly broad and could open the door for similar claims by children of OCI holders. The ministry urged the court to limit the relief to Rachita’s “exceptional” case.
A division bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela agreed, holding that the term “person of Indian origin” under the Citizenship Act applies only to individuals born in India before August 15, 1947, or in territories that later became part of India. They set aside the single-judge’s wider observations, stating these were based on a “misinterpretation” of the law.
The bench made it clear that the 2024 order should not be treated as a blanket precedent. The case will next be heard on October 15, 2025.
