PANAJI
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has written to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) and the Regional Passport Office (RPO) seeking details of Goans who are no longer Indian citizens but continue to remain on the State’s voter list.
In separate communication, the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer has written to the FRRO and the RPO, requesting updated records of individuals who have surrendered their Indian passports and acquired foreign ones.
Citing Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the CEO’s office stressed that only Indian citizens are eligible to be enrolled as voters, and anyone who ceases to be a citizen must be removed from the electoral roll. The letter specifically asks both agencies to share, “at the earliest,” details of Goans who now hold foreign passports and have consequently lost Indian citizenship.
This move follows CEO Sanjay Goel’s recent admission that election authorities lack any automated mechanism to track when a voter renounces an Indian passport. Goel noted that current systems do not alert electoral officials about such cases, resulting in foreign nationals or foreign passport holders continuing to remain on the rolls until manually identified.
He reiterated that Indian law mandates citizens who acquire foreign nationality to declare it and ensure their names are deleted from the voter list, since holding or using a foreign passport without notification is a criminal offence.
Data provided by the FRRO in the past shows that 25,939 Goans surrendered their Indian passports between January 1, 2014, and March 31, 2024.
The figures reflect varying yearly trends: 3,875 surrenders were recorded in 2015, increasing to 4,139 in 2016. The numbers then declined to 3,634 in 2017 and 3,603 in 2018. A sharp fall was observed in 2022, with only 1,265 surrenders, followed by a rise to 2,094 in 2023.
