Privación de ciudadanía

Deprivation reaches ONLY a citizen by REGISTRATION or NATURALISATION (other than by virtue of s.3, s.4 or s.5): citizens by appointed-date acquisition, birth or descent are IMMUNE (Citizenship of Saint Lucia Act, Cap. 1.04, s.9(1); constitutionally entrenched at Const s.103(b) — deprivation only of persons who are citizens otherwise than by virtue of s.99, 100 or 101). Grounds (s.9(2)): (a) certificate obtained by fraud/false representation/concealment of a material particular; (b) disloyalty/disaffection shown by acts or words; (c) wartime trading/communication/business with the enemy. Discretionary on ministerial satisfaction. Safeguards: written notice; right to an inquiry by a Committee for fraud-type grounds (s.9(3)-(6)); NO appeal and no inquiry right on the disloyalty/wartime grounds (s.9(5)). CBI grants are separately revocable under CBI Act s.38. SEPARATE from renunciation (XCT-01).

• By-birth citizens (Const s.100 / Act s.4) are constitutionally protected against deprivation: Parliament's power to deprive citizenship cannot reach a person who is a citizen by virtue of s.99, s.100 or s.101 (i.e. by-birth or by-descent citizens). The deprivation power (Act s.9) is correspondingly confined to citizens by registration or naturalisation, excluding s.3, s.4 and s.5 citizens.

• Deprivation procedural safeguards: before making a deprivation order the Minister shall give the person written notice of the ground; and where the proposed ground is fraud/false-representation/concealment (s.9(2)(a)) the person has a right to an inquiry; if that person applies, the Minister shall (and otherwise may) refer the case to a Committee for inquiry and report, whose powers equal those of a commission under the Commissions of Inquiry Act (Citizenship Act s.9(3), (4), (6)). - No appeal on disloyalty/wartime deprivation grounds: where a deprivation order is made on the grounds in s.9(2)(b) (disloyalty/disaffection) or s.9(2)(c) (wartime trading with the enemy), no appeal lies against the order, and no right to an inquiry attaches to those grounds (Citizenship Act s.9(5), and s.9(3)/(4) exclude paragraphs (b) and (c) from the inquiry right). - Deprivation as a discretionary order resting on Ministerial satisfaction: deprivation under s.9(2) is a power ('the Minister may by order deprive') exercised only where the Minister 'is satisfied' that one of the enumerated grounds is met; it is therefore discretionary and ground-gated, not automatic on the occurrence of any of the listed facts (Citizenship Act s.9(2)).

Primary statute: Citizenship of Saint Lucia Act, Cap. 1.04, s.9; Constitution s.103(b). Operative 1979-06-05–present. Authority: Minister.