The stateless sisters caught between India and Pakistan

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - DELHI — Two sisters seeking to become Indian citizens are currently stateless after failing to procure a document that could prove that they have renounced their citizenship of Pakistan.

The sisters, who have been living in India's Kerala state since 2008, surrendered their passports to the Pakistan High Commission in India in 2017, they recently told a court.

But as they were under 21 years, the minimum age for renouncing citizenship in Pakistan, the high commission did not issue their renunciation certificates at the time, they said.

They approached the High Commission again after turning 21, but it still refused to grant the certificate without giving any explanation, says the petitioners' mother, Rasheeda Bano (her daughters didn't want to speak to the media). She and her son are now Indian citizens but her daughters, she says, have been in limbo for years.

The situation, she says, has severely impacted her daughters' lives, as they are unable to even apply for passports.

The BBC has reached out to the Pakistani High Commission in India but hasn't received a response.

Neighbours India and Pakistan share a tense relationship which has often spilled over into hostility, like in May this year, when the countries engaged in a four-day military conflict. But migration is not uncommon, especially among members of families who ended up on different sides of the border when India was partitioned and Pakistan was created in 1947.

Over the past few decades, the process has become harder as there is much higher scrutiny of documents. As of December 2021, citizenship applications of more than 7,000 Pakistani nationals were pending with the government, according to data shared in parliament.

Ms Bano says that when the Pakistani High Commission did not provide the renunciation certificate, she requested them to return her daughters' passports, but this wasn't done.

The sisters have in their possession a certificate given by the high commission in 2018 which states that they have submitted their passports and Pakistan has no objection if they are granted Indian citizenship. But Indian authorities have refused to accept this in place of a renunciation certificate, forcing the sisters to move court.

Last year, a single-judge bench of the Kerala High Court ruled in their favour, saying that it was clear that the petitioners wouldn't be able to produce the document.

"It would be directing them to do the impossible," the court observed, ordering the Indian government to grant them citizenship.

But the federal home ministry appealed against this and on 23 August this year, a two-judge bench of the same court overturned the earlier order.

"For a person to be considered a citizen of India, they must be recognised as such by the Indian state alone, without any competing claims from another country's government," it said.

"The formal renunciation process is the mechanism that ensures this legal clarity," the court added.

The sisters have the option to appeal against the order in a higher court.

According to Pakistan's rules, people under the age of 21 cannot renounce their citizenship independently, but their names can be included in the renunciation application filed by their father.

The sisters' father, Mohammed Maroof, was born in Kerala but was adopted by his grandmother after he was orphaned at the age of nine. When she migrated to Pakistan in 1977, she took him along.

Their mum Ms Bano said her parents were also Indians but they got stuck in Pakistan while visiting relatives in 1971, after borders were shut when the two countries went to war.

Unable to return even after months, they found it easier to apply for Pakistani citizenship. She was born a few years later.

Ms Bano and Mr Maroof, who have four children, moved to India in 2008 on long-term visas to be closer to their "roots". But Mr Maroof was unable to adjust to life in India and soon returned to Pakistan.

Ms Bano and her son, who was above 21 years of age, were eventually granted Indian citizenship.

She said the family often faced stigma when they produced their Pakistani identity documents, but at least they had something to fall back on — for the sisters even that is not an option anymore.

Simple tasks like getting a mobile phone connection, or enrolling their children in school was difficult for them, she said. Authorities eventually allowed the sisters to get an Aadhaar Card, which acts as an identity document in India. But that's still not considered proof of citizenship, denying them basic rights.

Ms Bano says her daughters' lives have also been affected by the lack of passports. The husband of one of them had to leave his job in the Gulf and come to India as she couldn't travel to him. Meanwhile, her other daughter has a son who needs medical treatment abroad but she is unable to leave India.

"The sisters didn't get the certificate in 2017 because they were then minors. Now that they are adults, they can't go back to Pakistan because they have surrendered their passports. So how will they get the certificate?" says their lawyer M Sasindran.

"They are stuck now." — BBC