Judgment

RAY, J. :- This is an appeal by special leave from the judgment dated 18 July, 1969 of the High Court at Calcutta convicting the appellant under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act and sentencing him to simple imprisonment for one month.

2. The appellant was served with a notice on 21 February, 1962 requiring him to leave India within thirty days. He did not do so. He was arrested on 7 May, 1962. He was prosecuted under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act for violation of the notice to leave India. The defence of the appellant was that he was not a foreigner but was an Indian citizen. The Magistrate found that the prosecution failed to prove that the appellant was a foreigner and acquitted the appellant. The High Court reversed the acquittal.

Counsel for the appellant contended that the appellant was an Indian citizen.

The appellant was born at Sylhet which on the partition of India in 1947 became part of Pakistan. He came to Calcutta in 1914. He obtained a Pakistani passport in 1952.

It was said on behalf of the appellant that he came to Calcutta in 1914 and therefore at the commencement of the Constitution he became a citizen under Article 5 (c) of the Constitution.

3. In the pres