Registration — person of Indian origin resident outside undivided India

Two elements are required for §5(1)(b): (1) Indian origin per Explanation 2; and (2) ordinary residence in a country or place outside undivided India. Explanation 1 (the twelve-months-plus-six-of-eight-years India-residence deeming) does NOT apply to clause (b) — it is confined by its own terms to clauses (a) and (c) — consistent with the fact that a clause (b) applicant is by definition resident abroad, not in India. The §5(1) chapeau conditions apply: the applicant must not be an illegal migrant (§2(1)(b)) and must not already be a citizen by virtue of the Constitution or the Act. A full-age applicant must take the Second Schedule oath before registration (§5(2)), and the §5(3) prior-loss bar applies. The grant is discretionary under §14, without assigned reasons, and final subject to §15 revision. This is the modern diaspora route: a person of Indian origin living abroad may seek Indian citizenship by registration without first establishing residence in India.

A person of Indian origin resident abroad applies to the Central Government in the prescribed manner for registration under §5(1)(b), typically through an Indian mission or consulate abroad. The Central Government verifies Indian origin (Explanation 2) and ordinary residence outside undivided India. If satisfied, it may register the applicant; the grant is discretionary under §14 and final subject to §15 revision. A full-age applicant must take the Second Schedule oath of allegiance before registration (§5(2)); on registration the person is a citizen by registration from the date of registration (§5(5)). The §5(3) prior-loss bar applies to former citizens. Because registration confers full Indian citizenship, and India does not permit dual citizenship (Constitution Art 9; §9), a successful clause (b) applicant must give up any foreign nationality, and a registrant who later voluntarily acquires a foreign citizenship ceases to be an Indian citizen under §9(1). Government fees and timelines are operational figures not asserted here.

Section 5(1)(b) empowers the Central Government, on an application made in that behalf, to register as a citizen of India a person of Indian origin who is ordinarily resident in any country or place outside undivided India. Unlike clause (a), it imposes no seven-year India-residence requirement and no minimum residence period at all: the qualifying connection is Indian origin combined with ordinary residence outside undivided India. The provision is part of the §5(1) text substituted by Act 6 of 2004 (w.e.f. 3 December 2004), and it carries forward a diaspora-registration category present since the principal Act. 'Person of Indian origin' is defined by Explanation 2 to §5(1) (the applicant, or either parent, was born in undivided India or in territory that became part of India after 15 August 1947); 'undivided India' is defined by §2(1)(h) as India as defined in the Government of India Act, 1935, as originally enacted. The §5(1) chapeau conditions apply: the applicant must not be an illegal migrant (§2(1)(b)) and must not already be a citizen by virtue of the Constitution or the Act.