Deprivation of citizenship (§10, involuntary Govt order)

The deprivation procedure sits in section 10(4), (5) and (6) — NOT section 10(3) (which is the public-good satisfaction, not the machinery). Section 10(4): before making an order, the Central Government must give the person WRITTEN NOTICE of the ground on which deprivation is proposed and, where the proposed ground is any ground in section 10(2) OTHER than clause (e), notice of his right (on application in the prescribed manner) to have the case referred to a Committee of Inquiry. Section 10(5): on such an application the Central Government SHALL (and in any other case MAY) refer the case to a Committee of Inquiry consisting of a chairman who has held judicial office for at least ten years and two other members appointed by the Central Government. Section 10(6): the Committee holds the inquiry in the prescribed manner and submits its report, and the Central Government 'shall ordinarily be guided by such report' in making its order. The referral right does NOT attach to ground (e) (seven years' residence abroad): a person facing deprivation on ground (e) alone has notice but no Committee-of-Inquiry entitlement. The Committee-of-Inquiry entitlement is therefore the central procedural safeguard, tied to grounds (a)–(d).

Deprivation of Indian citizenship is governed by section 10 of the Citizenship Act 1955 — the third and only INVOLUNTARY provision under the 'TERMINATION OF CITIZENSHIP' head. Unlike section 8 (voluntary renunciation) and section 9 (automatic termination on voluntary foreign acquisition), section 10 empowers the STATE to strip citizenship by an order of the Central Government. The power is deliberately confined. Section 10(1) provides, verbatim: 'A citizen of India who is such by naturalisation or by virtue only of clause (c) of article 5 of the Constitution or by registration otherwise than under clause (b)(ii) of article 6 of the Constitution or clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 5 of this Act, shall cease to be a citizen of India, if he is deprived of that citizenship by an order of the Central Government under this section.' The provision therefore reaches ONLY three classes of citizen: (i) citizens by naturalisation (section 6); (ii) citizens by virtue ONLY of Article 5(c) of the Constitution (the five-years-ordinary-residence commencement cohort); and (iii) citizens by registration, EXCEPT those registered under Article 6(b)(ii) of the Constitution or under section 5(1)(a) of the Act. The exclusions are as important as the inclusions: a citizen by BIRTH (section 3) and a citizen by DESCENT (section 4) can NEVER be deprived under section 10, and even among registered citizens the Article-6(b)(ii) partition cohort and the section-5(1)(a) person-of-Indian-origin registrants are carved out. Deprivation is thus a targeted power directed at CONFERRED (as opposed to birth/descent) citizenship, reflecting the principle that citizenship acquired by grant may be forfeited for cause in a way that citizenship acquired by birth or blood may not. The section 10 power is also non-delegable: section 16 expressly withholds section 10 from the powers the Central Government may delegate to a subordinate officer or authority.

Central Government (the deprivation order under section 10(1)–(3); non-delegable per section 16). Committee of Inquiry under section 10(5) — a chairman who has held judicial office for at least ten years plus two other members appointed by the Central Government; its report ordinarily guides the Government (section 10(6)). No specific reported deprivation case is asserted here (none is pinned in the LOSS evidence for section 10 application).

On the making of a valid order the person ceases to be a citizen of India (section 10(1)) and becomes a foreign national vis-à-vis India. Deprivation is an executive act subject to the section 10(3) public-good threshold and the section 10(4)–(6) procedural safeguards, and the section 10 power is non-delegable (section 16). Deprivation is conceptually distinct from, and must not be collapsed into, section 8 renunciation (the citizen's own voluntary declaration) or section 9 termination (automatic loss on voluntary foreign acquisition); the differentiators are the trigger (a Government order) and the agent (the State).

§10 + §16 + §18(2)(i) (Citizenship Act 1955). Corroboration: advocatekhoj §10; indiankanoon §10; commonlii §10; NLIU Law Review.