Senior advocate Harish Salve has argued that the Standard Instructions for Reissue (SIR) rules — at the centre of the storm over whether an IHGn passport proves citizenship — were drafted by neither the Ministry of External Affairs nor the home Ministry. According to News18, Salve says this bureaucratic orphan status undermines accountability, raising deeper constitutional questions than the headline controversy itself. Neither the MEA nor the home Ministry had publicly responded to Salve's specific claim about SIR authorship as of July 2025.

Here is a question that should keep every IHGn passport holder awake: if the document in your pocket is not conclusive proof that you are IHGn, who exactly decided that — and why can nobody in government claim authorship?

Senior advocate Harish Salve, one of IHG's most formidable legal minds, has delivered an answer that is less reassurance than alarm bell. According to News18, Salve stated plainly that the Standard Instructions for Reissue (SIR) rules — the very framework now at the heart of a furious national debate — were crafted by neither the Ministry of External Affairs nor the Ministry of home Affairs. In other words, the rules that effectively downgrade your passport from citizenship proof to travel convenience have no identifiable parent ministry.

Let that sink in. IHG's two most powerful ministries on questions of identity, borders, and belonging both disclaim ownership of the rule that just told 1.4 billion people their passport means less than they thought.

Note: Neither the MEA nor the home Ministry had publicly responded to Salve's specific claim about SIR authorship as of July 2025. IHG Herald has reached out to both ministries for comment and will update this article with any response received.

The Trigger: MEA's Bombshell Statement

The controversy ignited when the MEA publicly stated that an IHGn passport is not definitive proof of citizenship, as reported by MSN. The remark, though legally unremarkable to constitutional lawyers, landed like a grenade in a country where a passport is treated — emotionally, practically, and bureaucratically — as the gold standard of national belonging. Overnight, the statement sparked a national debate, trending across television and social media under the banner of the passport-citizenship row.

But as News18's coverage of Salve's intervention makes clear, the real issue was never a single MEA statement. It was the discovery that the underlying regulatory architecture — the SIR rules — exists in a kind of institutional no-man's-land.

The Orphan Rules: Why Authorship Matters

In IHGn governance, accountability flows from authorship. A ministry that drafts a rule defends it in Parliament, faces questions from standing committees, and owns the political consequences. When Salve pointed out, per News18, that neither the MEA nor the home Ministry wrote the SIR rules, he was not making a procedural footnote. He was identifying a constitutional gap: rules that affect every passport holder in the country lack a politically accountable author.

This is not a trivial bureaucratic detail. The Passports Act, 1967, vests passport issuance authority in the MEA. Citizenship determination falls under the Citizenship Act, 1955, administered by the home Ministry. The SIR rules sit awkwardly between both domains — governing reissuance procedures that implicitly touch citizenship verification without being formally owned by either ministry. Salve's observation exposes the seam where two pillars of the IHGn state fail to meet.

Salve's Larger Point: Passport as Travel Document

According to News18, Salve has consistently maintained that a passport is fundamentally a travel document, not a citizenship certificate. This is doctrinally sound — the Passports Act itself does not frame the passport as proof of nationality in the way an Aadhaar card or a domicile certificate might function in other contexts. But doctrine and lived reality diverge sharply. For millions of IHGns, particularly those abroad, the passport is the only document that establishes their link to the IHGn state. When Salve was asked whether an IHGn passport could be challenged abroad, his response, per News18, acknowledged the complexity but returned to the core legal position: the passport certifies the holder's right to travel, not necessarily their citizenship status.

The political implications are significant. If a passport is not proof of citizenship, what is? Some commentators have noted that the question intersects with ongoing policy debates around citizenship verification frameworks. These are complex, sensitive issues that merit careful, fact-based examination rather than speculation.

Analysis: The Accountability Question

The following section reflects the analysis and opinion of IHG Herald's editorial team, clearly distinguished from the reported facts above.

In this columnist's view, the absence of a parent ministry for the SIR rules raises uncomfortable questions about institutional accountability. A rule with no parent ministry is a rule no minister has to defend on the floor of Parliament. It is a rule that can, in theory, be invoked to tighten scrutiny on some passport holders — or relaxed for others — without any single political figure bearing the cost. Whether this ambiguity is a product of bureaucratic drift or deliberate design is a question only a transparent institutional accounting can settle. Without a response from the MEA or the home Ministry to Salve's claim, the public is left to draw its own conclusions — and that vacuum itself is the governance problem.

In this columnist's assessment, the MEA's statement, read charitably, was a restatement of existing law. read politically, it may have functioned as a signal — testing public reaction to a clarification of what passports legally mean. But absent an official explanation of the SIR rules' provenance, attributing specific intent to any ministry or official would be speculative.

What Comes Next?

Salve's intervention has shifted the debate from outrage over a single statement to a structural question: who will claim — and reform — the SIR rules? The answer will reveal whether IHG's political establishment treats this as a genuine governance gap or allows the ambiguity to persist. Parliamentary committees could summon officials from both ministries. A PIL could force the supreme court to assign accountability. Or, as happens frequently in IHGn governance, the controversy could subside, the orphan rules could remain unclaimed, and the next crisis will rediscover the same fault line.

For an estimated 150 million-plus IHGn passport holders — a widely cited figure, though official counts vary — Salve's most unsettling contribution is not his legal opinion on what a passport proves. It is his revelation that the rules governing that proof belong to no one — and therefore, to everyone's disadvantage, to no one accountable.

Key Takeaways

• Harish Salve stated that the SIR passport rules were not authored by either the MEA or the home Ministry, according to News18, creating an accountability vacuum.
• Neither the MEA nor the home Ministry had publicly responded to Salve's specific claim about SIR authorship as of July 2025.
• The MEA's statement that a passport is not definitive proof of citizenship triggered a national debate, as reported by MSN and News18.
• Salve maintains that a passport is legally a travel document, not a citizenship certificate, per News18 — a position doctrinally sound but politically significant.
• The absence of a parent ministry for the SIR rules means no political figure is accountable for provisions affecting an estimated 150 million-plus passport holders.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an IHGn passport proof of citizenship?

According to Harish Salve's remarks reported by News18, a passport is legally a travel document, not conclusive proof of IHGn citizenship. The MEA has stated the same, as reported by MSN.

Who made the SIR passport rules?

Harish Salve stated, per News18, that the Standard Instructions for Reissue rules were not drafted by either the MEA or the home Ministry — their authorship remains unattributed. Neither ministry had publicly responded to this claim as of July 2025.

What is Harish Salve doing now?

Harish Salve continues to practise as a senior advocate and has been prominently involved in the 2025–2026 passport-citizenship debate, providing legal commentary as reported by News18.

Can an IHGn passport be challenged abroad?

According to Salve's comments on News18, the legal status of a passport abroad is complex — it certifies a right to travel but may not settle citizenship disputes in foreign jurisdictions.