New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday issued notice to the government on a petition questioning the policy of granting dual citizenship to persons of Indian origin (PIOs) who had migrated from India and acquired citizenship of countries other than Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A bench of judges Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta issued notice on a petition filed by India-born K.N.A. Farooqi challenging the policy announced Dec 2, 2005 after hearing his counsel S. Ravishankar who contended the policy should be extended to all those who migrated from India and acquired foreign citizenship.

Farooqi, who acquired Pakistani citizenship, said the impugned policy granted "overseas citizenship of India" (OCI) or dual citizenship to PIOs who would be eligible as long as their home countries allowed dual citizenship in some form or the other under the local laws.

Under the scheme a foreign national, who was eligible to become a citizen of India after Jan 26, 1950, was eligible for registration as an OCI.

Farooqi said he was born in Lucknow in 1934 and migrated to Chittagong in 1952. He got married in 1966 and his wife was also from Lucknow.

From 1971 they had been living in Karachi. He said his in-laws and other relatives were all permanent residents of Lucknow and Delhi.

Farooqi said though he wanted to avail the benefit of the OCI, he could not do so as it was not applicable to citizens of Pakistan and Bangladesh despite the fact that they were of Indian origin.

He contended that all those who chose to be citizens of India as on Jan 26, 1950 were eligible to be PIOs and just because he became a Pakistani citizen, he could not be treated differently.

Contending that the OCI policy was discriminatory, he sought a direction to the Indian government to extend the scheme to all those who migrated from the country and acquired foreign citizenship.