Rights of Overseas Citizen of India — International Sport Events — Constitution of India Article 9.

The petitioner was born in the USA returned to India at the
age of one year and educated in India. The petitioner’s father was serving in
the State of Punjab Police. The petitioner was granted Oversea’s citizen of
India status by the Govt. of India in year 2007. The petitioner had represented
India in several international sport events and also secured medals. The issue
arose in view of a policy dated 26-12-2008 and 12-3-2009 formulated by the Union
of India whereby classification between players who are Indians and players who
are foreign nationals of Indian origin were made, the impugned rule restricted
foreign nationals of Indian origin from participation in the national teams.

The Court held that when an NRI is permitted to participate
for India in sports events and facilities analogous to the NRIs have been
granted to the Overseas Citizens of India, then OCI would also be entitled to
participate in international sports tournament representing India.

Article 9 relates to a consequence of voluntary acquisition
of citizenship of a foreign state by a citizen of India. In the instant case,
there was no voluntary acquisition of citizenship of the USA by the petitioner
because the petitioner was born in the USA and travelled to India at the age of
one year. At the time of birth, the petitioner obviously was not in a position
to voluntarily acquire the citizenship of a foreign state. If a person chooses
to voluntarily acquire the citizenship of a foreign state, he ceases to be a
citizen of India. This situation does not exist insofar as the petitioner was
concerned. Accordingly, participation cannot be denied on the basis of Article 9
of the Constitution of India.

[Sorab Singh Gill v. UOI & Ors., AIR 2010 Punjab &
Haryana 83]