Termination on voluntary foreign acquisition (§9, AUTOMATIC — no-dual mechanism)

Section 9 requires no procedure to EFFECT loss — loss is automatic under section 9(1). What section 9(2) supplies is an EVIDENTIARY determination of the fact of loss where a question arises: 'If any question arises as to whether, when or how any citizen of India has acquired the citizenship of another country, it shall be determined by such authority, in such manner, and having regard to such rules of evidence, as may be prescribed in this behalf' ('citizen of India' was substituted for 'person' by Act 6/2004). The prescribed authority and rules of evidence are set out in the Citizenship Rules 2009 (Rule 40(2) and Schedule III); under Schedule III, obtaining a passport from another country is treated as conclusive proof of voluntary acquisition of that country's citizenship — the rule upheld in Izhar Ahmad Khan v. Union of India. The section 9(2) determination is DECLARATORY of a loss already effected by section 9(1); it is not the constitutive act.

Termination of Indian citizenship on voluntary acquisition of a foreign citizenship is governed by section 9 of the Citizenship Act 1955, read with its constitutional twin, Article 9 of the Constitution of India. Section 9 is the operative NO-DUAL-CITIZENSHIP mechanism of Indian nationality law. Section 9(1) provides, verbatim: 'Any citizen of India who by naturalisation, registration or otherwise voluntarily acquires, or has at any time between the 26th January, 1950 and the commencement of this Act, voluntarily acquired, the citizenship of another country shall, upon such acquisition or, as the case may be, such commencement, cease to be a citizen of India' (the decoded consolidated text drops the connective 'or' before 'otherwise'; the canonical wording reads 'registration or otherwise voluntarily acquires' — a decode-fidelity note with no substantive effect). Article 9 supplies the constitutional root for the commencement cohort: 'No person shall be a citizen of India by virtue of article 5, or be deemed to be a citizen of India by virtue of article 6 or article 8, if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign State.' Article 9 governs those who WERE citizens at commencement (26 January 1950); section 9(1) operationalises the same principle prospectively for every citizen thereafter, and also retrospectively for foreign citizenship voluntarily acquired between 26 January 1950 and the commencement of the Act (30 December 1955). The defining structural feature is that termination is AUTOMATIC — it operates by force of the statute itself ('shall.. cease to be a citizen of India'), at the instant of the voluntary foreign acquisition, without any order of the Central Government, without any declaration by the citizen, and without any act of renunciation. This is categorically different from section 8 (a voluntary declaration perfected by registration) and section 10 (an involuntary order of the State).