Article 5A is intended to provide for all cases of mass migration-if I may use that expression-from Pakistan into India and to provide for that class of persons who have made the present India as their home. Now they are in our country and want to make this their home. We do not in that article make any distinction between one community and another, between one sect and another. We make a general provision that if they migrated to this country and they were born in India as defined in the earlier Constitution, then they will be entitled to the benefits of Citizenship. That is the import of article 5 A, clause (a). Clause (b) provides for registration of migrated people. Certain safeguards are provided for in clause (2) so as to make it quite clear that the authorities accept the migrated people as bona fide citizens of this country. That is the object of this clause. There is also a provision to the effect that no registration shall be made unless the person making the application has resided in the territory of India for at least 6 months. Therefore, there are two safeguards, (1) there will be registration and (2) no registration shall be made unless the applicant has resided in the territory of India for at least six months before the date of application. If article 5-A stood by itself it would mean that even if persons went to Pakistan with the deliberate intention of making Pakistan their permanent home, and re-migrated to India they might be entitled to the benefit of 5A. In order to provide against that contingency 5AA is proposed which reads as follows:-
“Notwithstanding anything contained in articles 5 and 5A of this Constitution, a person who has, after the first day of March, 1947 migrated from the territory of India to the territory now included in Pakistan shall not be deemed to be a citizen of India.”