One Year On - Ramgoolam Coalition fails to Keep Vow to Revoke Citizenship Law
12.11.2025
After one whole year, the Ramgoolam Labour-MMM-ND-RA coalition has failed on one key democratic issue: It has not revoked the power given by the previous Government to the Prime Minister to strip any citizen of their citizenship in his own absolute discretion and deport them without a Court hearing.
Readers will recall that LALIT member Lindsey Collen challenged Jugnauth government before the Supreme Court on the unjust law that gave the Prime Minister the excessive additional power to revoke Mauritian citizenship from a citizen without giving a reason.
Here is the section of the Citizenship Act that LALIT challenged, as being anti-constitutional and thus void: "the Minister may, in his absolute discretion and without giving any reason, deprive any person of his citizenship of Mauritius, if he has reliable information and is satisfied that it is in the interest of defence, public safety or public order" [section 11 (8) of the Mauritius Citizenship Act].
The law clearly gives king-like powers to what is supposed to be a democratically elected and accountable leader.
When the law was going through Parliament at the time, here is what now Prime Minister Ramgoolam said in his capacity as leader of the Labour Party: “Sa Bil lor Immigration la, mo kapav dir u, pu mwa, li anti-konstitisyonel; li pa mem akseptab, li kont tu bann konvansyon nu finn siyne. E mwa mo kapav dir u, sa kuma nu vini nu aboli sa. Nu retire sa lalwa la. Pa pu existe.” [Defimedia.info 27 July 2022].
The Number 3 in Government now, Shakeel Mohamed, said these kinds of power are “dangereux” and such a law is “archaïque” and “n’a plus sa raison d’être dans une démocratie” (lexpress.mu of 29 August 2024).
During the 2022 Parliamentary debates there were well-argued speeches by MPs, then in Opposition, who are now senior Cabinet Ministers. These include Hon. Dr. Arvin Boolell, Hon. Reza Uteem and Hon. Arianne Navarre-Marie. Other MPs now on the Majority benches who took committed positions against the law were Kushal Lobine and Hon Dr. Farhad Aumeer. Joanna Bérenger also took a stand against the law.
In addition, when the new Government came into office, the Attorney General Gavin Glover replied to a letter from Lindsey Collen asking about what stand the State would take. “He assured me that the offending part of the law would be removed from the statute books,” she says. In addition, he authorized the State Law Office to make the following statement in Court:
“So with respect to [Section 11(8) Mauritius Citizenship Act] government is proposing to amend the section to provide that the Minister responsible for citizenship will not have the power in his absolute discretion to deprive the citizenship to any person. So that would take care of the contentions that are being made in the Plaint with Summons so that there would be no need for the present matter to go ahead.”
It was on this basis that Lindsey Collen eventually withdrew her Constitutional case on 23 May this year. LALIT and all those supporting the case had won politically.
Almost every extended family in Mauritius is potentially affected by this draconian law. And yet still there has been no amendment, after one whole year.
And though the Prime Minister and the Attorney General gave their word, the law remains unchanged.
We remind readers that the barristers Antoine Domingue SC and Jean-Claude Bibi and Attorney Ayesha Jeewa SA, conducted this complex and three-year-long case pro bono.
