Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday called for a legislative overhaul to end the controversy over the legal status of Indian passports, arguing that both passports and Aadhaar cards should be recognised as conclusive proof of Indian citizenship unless they are cancelled or withdrawn by the state.
Reacting to the Ministry of External Affairs' clarification on Passport Seva Divas that an Indian passport is primarily a travel document and not conclusive proof of citizenship, Tharoor said the government's explanation, though based on the Passports Act, 1967, has created widespread public confusion.
He noted that while Section 20 of the Act permits passports to be issued to non-citizens under exceptional circumstances in the public interest, the distinction was meaningless to the average citizen because passports are issued only after rigorous police verification and extensive scrutiny of documents.
"For decades, the passport has been regarded as the gold standard of identity," Tharoor said, questioning how a document issued after such stringent verification could then be declared inadequate as proof of citizenship. "If a passport does not establish domestic citizenship, then what does?" he asked.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP also pointed out that the Supreme Court had earlier held that the Aadhaar card serves only as proof of identity and residence, not citizenship. Together, he argued, the two positions leave millions of Indians possessing government-issued identity documents that are still not legally considered conclusive proof of nationality.
To resolve what he described as an absurd legal paradox, Tharoor proposed amendments to the legal framework recognising both passports and Aadhaar as valid proof of citizenship. Acknowledging that Aadhaar is currently issued on the basis of residence rather than nationality, he suggested that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) introduce a visually distinct Aadhaar card for non-citizen residents.
Such a system, he argued, would clearly distinguish citizens from non-citizens, simplify domestic verification procedures, reduce bureaucratic disputes during exercises such as electoral roll revisions and provide every Indian with legal certainty over his or her citizenship status.