( 1 ) THIS and the companion applications are directed against orders passed by a Magistrate before whom the applicants are being fried under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act for infringement of rule 7 of the Foreigners Order, 1948, refusing to stay proceedings in the cases. All the applicants were citizens of India under Article 5 of the Constitution on 26-1-1950, went to pakistan in April, 1950 and returned to India in 1955 or 1956 after obtaining passports from the pakistan Government as citizens of Pakistan. The passports were endorsed with visas by the indian Diplomatic Authority in Karachi limiting the period of their stay in India. They failed to depart from India before the expiry of the periods mentioned in their visas and are now being prosecuted for their failure under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act. Applications were made on their behalf for stay of the proceedings in the cases on the grounds that they could not he held to be foreigners unless they were held to have acquired the citizenship of Pakistan and thereby lost the citizenship of India, that the question whether they had acquired the citizenship of Pakistan or not was to be decided by the Centr