Is a bank account proof of Indian Citizenship? If a person has an account in any public sector bank such as SBI or PNB, then can that bank account be treated as proof of Indian citizenship. The Calcutta High Court has given an important order related to this case.
The Calcutta High Court has ruled that documents such as a Voter Identity Card, Aadhaar Card, PAN Card, bank account records, land records and even the passport of a close relative do not, by themselves, constitute conclusive proof of Indian citizenship.
The Court observed this while dismissing a habeas corpus petition filed by a man claiming that his nephew had been illegally detained after being wrongly identified as a Bangladeshi national.
The petitioner contended that the detainee was an Indian citizen whose name had initially been kept “under adjudication” during the Special Intensive Review (SIR), 2026 of electoral rolls before being deleted.
He argued that an appeal against the deletion was still pending and that the authorities had detained the detainee without first deciding his citizenship claim. In support of the plea, reliance was placed on documents including the detainee’s voter identity card, Aadhaar card, PAN card, bank records, land records of his ancestors and the passport of his paternal aunt.
A Division Bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta held that none of these documents conclusively established Indian citizenship.
The Bench observed, “Voter Identity Card is not a conclusive proof about Indian Citizenship. It is evidence of enrolment of the detainee in the electoral roll.” It further held that, “AADHAAR Card cannot by itself be a conclusive proof of Indian citizenship. So also a Permanent Account Number issued by the Income Tax Department. Opening of a Bank Account, by itself, again is not a proof of Indian citizenship.”
Since the petitioner failed to establish citizenship by birth, descent or registration under the Citizenship Act, 1955, the Bench declined to interfere with the detention order passed under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025.
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