Article 5 made certain persons as Indian citizens at the time of the commencement of Indian Constitution. The first condition to be an Indian Citizen is of „domicile‟ i.e. a person has domicile in the territory of India.
The term „domicile‟ has not been defined in the Indian Constitution. „Domicile‟ means the place where a person‟s habitation is fixed without any present intention of moving there from. Every person has a domicile at his birth called the domicile of origin. The domicile of origin remains unchanged until the person acquires a new domicile, i.e. by actually settling in another country with the intention of permanently residing there. Till then the domicile of origin continues even if he has left the country with an intention of never returning again. The onus to prove that a person has changed his domicile of origin lies upon him. It has been held by the Supreme Court that there must be factum and animus to constitute the existence of domicile in India. Similarly, the Supreme Court said in Louis Raedt v Union of India , that the person should show his appropriate state of mind required for acquisition of domicile by choice.
In Pradeep Jain v Union of India , the Supreme Court held that there is only one domicile in India. The court said that the domicile does not change with the change of residence within India.
A minor or married person does not have the legal capacity to make a change of domicile. Therefore, a minor carries the domicile of his father and a married woman gets the domicile of her husband.
Both Articles 6 and 7 use the term „migrated‟. The meaning of the term „migrated‟ came into consideration of Supreme Court in Kulathi v State of Kerala . The majority held that the word „migrate‟ was used in a wider sense of moving from one country to another with the qualification that such movement was not for a short visit or for a special purpose.
Article 8 provides for the Rights of citizenship of certain persons of Indian origin residing outside India. Article 9 provides that no person shall be a citizen of India by virtue of Article 5, or be deemed to be a citizen of India by virtue of Article 6 or Article 8, if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign State. It deals only with voluntary acquisition of citizenship of a foreign state before the Constitution came into force. Under Article 10 Parliament may take away the right of citizenship of any person.