By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Sept. 23: The Delhi High Court in what many call a landmark case against the Union of India vs. three separate petitioners, has ordered the concerned authority, the Ministry of External Affairs to issue passports to all Tibetans who fulfill the requirements set under the Citizenship Act, according to a petitioner of the PIL.
The MEA has been ordered to provide passports to all three petitioners within four weeks of the judgment.
The three petitioners Phuntsok Wangyal, Lobsang Wangyal and Tenzin Dhonden have been told to acquire citizenship certificate from the Ministry of Home Affairs before they could acquire a passport. The grounds of the three petitioners was for the implementation of the Indian Citizenship Act 1955 which states that anyone born in Indian territories between Jan 26, 1950 to July 1, 1987 is by law an Indian citizen. Furthermore, one of the petitioners Tenzin Dhonden who was born after 1987 will also be considered an Indian citizen as his father had been born in India in 1966, the Court observed.
Lobsang Wangyal who filed the Public Interest Litigation in May after pursuing the matter for over two years expressed joy describing the victory as an “irony of sort.” He wrote, “I am on train, travelling from Hannover to Amsterdam without passport and a visa, and on train I hear the news I will get an Indian passport in four weeks. Yes, I have won the case against the Government of India in the passport case for Tibetans.” Tibetans refugees have been issued the IC (Identity Certificate/ Travel Document) by the Indian government in lieu of a passport.
The High Court also overturned a letter written by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the Election Commission whereby the Ministry of Home Affairs stated that all Tibetans irrespective of their date of birth could not be presumed to be Indian. The Court nullified the letter pronouncing it to be in violation of the Citizenship Act in existence.
Giriraj Subramanium, who represented Lobsang Wangyal and Tenzin Dhonden said, “This Judgment clearly affirms the right of each Tibetan to an Indian Passport, and further ensures that Tibetans can avail of the protection of Indian Laws.”
In December 2010, a similar case was ruled in favor of a Tibetan woman in the Delhi High Court. The case was a welcome precedent for many Tibetans vying for Indian passports, yet many are still trotting between bureaucratic lines and unenforced implementation of the existing law.
The exile Tibetan government’s position on the matter is described as “a personal choice (of every Tibetan)” by the Sikyong Lobsang Sangay (Tibetan Prime Minister) in The Times of India back in 2013. He mentioned, “The CTA cannot prevent any Tibetan from applying for the Indian citizenship. The decision to apply for Indian or any other country’s citizenship is a personal choice.”
Although many Tibetans see getting a passport to be a surface change, something to ease living in the exile limbo, certain sections of the Tibetan community feels the adoption of Indian citizenship contributes towards diverting the political struggle at hand. Writer and activist Tenzin Tsundue earlier told The Indian Express, “It dilutes the struggle for a free Tibet because it naturally sets in complacency in the life of people and the urgency is lost in the process. Of course they can continue to be culturally Tibetan, but now they can be supporters, not claimants for Tibet.”
In response however, Lobsang Wangyal told Phayul, “As far as I am concerned, obtaining an Indian passport doesn’t mean abandoning allegiance to the CTA or turning away from the free Tibet movement. The Free Tibet movement is not, in any way, about whether Tibetans in exile will return to Tibet or not. It is about fulfilling the wishes of Tibetans in Tibet. They will not miss anything if exiles Tibetans don’t go (back) to a free Tibet. It (Indian passport) will make life easier, and makes one a complete person in today’s globalised world.”
