MK (A Child By Her Litigation Friend CAE), R (On the Application O... 4 of 12 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2017/1365.html December 2004 (the date of commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003 (India)) the child is not a citizen unless the birth is registered at an Indian consulate 'in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed'. If the registration is after the child's first birthday it needs 'the permission of the Central Government'. In either case the parents have to declare, also 'in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed', that the child does not hold the passport of any other country. There is no suggestion that citizenship is granted from the date of registration: it is obtained by the birth, provided that the birth is registered. 10. Guidance issued by the Indian Government provides for the use of a form for the process of registration, and an 'undertaking in writing by the parents' that the child does not hold the passport of another country. The claimants have adduced evidence that the Indian consulates in the United Kingdom will require the production of documentation that F and M do not have, for example F's passport and their marriage certificate. But there has been no investigation or any elucidation of what is actually required in an individual case. Given that citizenship can pass from the child's mother it seems highly unlikely that registration is impossible without these two particular documents although it is said that the production of the parents' marriage certificate is 'mandatory' despite there being no requirement that the parents are married. Production of an Indian passport is required only for an Indian passport holder: F claims not to be one, because his passport has expired. There does not seem to be any good reason why he should not renew it if he needs to. So far as a marriage certificate is concerned the position as I understand it is that M and F were married in a Sikh ceremony in the United Kingdom. What counts as a certificate of a Sikh marriage according to Indian law is itself an area of some complexity and is not something on which I can make any finding of fact. Suffice it to say that C has not established that M and F would not be able to produce what is required; and there is no proper basis upon which I could find that the Indian government erect such barriers to the registration of a child's birth in accordance with the statute. 11. Much more to the point is the question what is meant by needing the permission of the Central Government for registration. The evidence of the defendant's witnesses Katie-Ann Baker (from her own experience) and Jane Whitehead (from enquiries of an Indian minister and two consular officials) indicates that in practice there is no difference between registration before the child's first birthday and registration after that date. The Indian officials said that there is 'no restriction' on later registration. This is important: it means that the statutory provision requiring the permission of the Central Government does not in practice imply the exercise of a discretion: permission is given routinely. Mrs Baker also says that if an application is made without the correct documentation it will be (or perhaps may be) refused; but this is not a refusal of registration, merely an indication that the documentation is not in order and that the application will need to be resubmitted. 12. There are other provisions of the law, to which I was referred, but on which I do not need to make any specific finding. There are possibilities for applying for registration as a citizen where a person born outside India comes to live in India while still a minor, and there are provisions for the backdating (if necessary) of the Central government permission. There is no evidence before me of any actual difficulty in registering a child whom the parents wanted to register. 13. The Indian law and practice as revealed from the evidence is that a child born to an Indian parent outside India has a right to Indian citizenship, which, if the child was born on or after 3 December 2004 is obtained by registration at the Indian consulate after fulfilling appropriate administrative procedures directed to identification of the child and the parents and their nationality. The child's age has no impact on the process. English law: statelessness 14. It is agreed between the parties that the underlying purpose of the statutory provisions under consideration is to reduce statelessness and that they are motivated by the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. It is further agreed between the parties that the meaning of 'stateless' and 'statelessness' for these purposes is that given by the definition in art 1(1) of the United Nations 20/05/2021, 15:49