Akhay Kumar Mozumdar v. United States

• Citation: 299 F. 240
• Decision Date: 16 June 1924
• Docket Number: 4229.
• Parties: AKHAY KUMAR MOZUMDAR v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

299 F. 240

AKHAY KUMAR MOZUMDAR v. UNITED STATES.

No. 4229.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

June 16, 1924

S. G Pandit, of Los Angeles, Cal., for appellant.

Joseph C. Burke, U.S. Atty., and J. Edwin Simpson, Asst. U.S. Atty both of Los Angeles, Cal.

Before GILBERT, ROSS, and RUDKIN, Circuit Judges.

ROSS Circuit Judge.

The agreed statement of facts upon which this case was submitted to and decided by the court below shows, among other things that the appellant, pursuant to his declaration of intention to become a naturalized citizen of the United States, filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Washington on the 11th day of July, 1912, his petition to be so naturalized, and, omitting some now unimportant proceedings the application came on to be heard before that court on February 24, 1913, at which time the applicant 'testified under oath that he came from the northern part of India, that he was a high-caste Hindu of pure blood, and that he considered himself a member of the Aryan race,' upon which showing the court, over the objection of the naturalization examiner of the government that the petitioner 'was not a free white person, within the meaning of section 2169, Revised Statutes of the United States,' ordered that the petitioner be admitted to citizenship upon taking the oath prescribed by law.

Subsequently, and on the 28th day of March, 1923, the same naturalization examiner made affidavit that he 'verily believes, and therefore states the fact to be, that citizenship in the United States was illegally procured by Akhay Kumar Mozumdar, as held by the Supreme Court of the United States during the October, 1922, term, February 19, 1923, No 202, in the case entitled 'United States, Appellant, v. Bhagat Singh Thind.' ' Thereafter, and on the 8th of August, 1923, the United States attorney for the Southern district of California filed on behalf of the government in the court below a petition for the cancellation of the appellant's naturalization, wherein he alleged:

'That your petitioner is informed and believes, and upon such information and belief alleges, that the said order and decree of court and certificate of naturalization were illegally procured from said court in this: That said defendant was at all times herein mentioned a high-caste Hindu of full Indian blood, and not a white person entitled to be naturalized under the provisions of section 2169 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. That prior to the institution of this suit a certain affidavit showing cause therefor was received by the United States attorney for the Southern district of California, made by George W. Tyler, a duly appointed, qualified, and acting examiner of the Bureau of Naturalization, United States Department of Labor, * * * and praying a cancellation of the order of the court complained of, as well as the certificate of naturalization.'

It is from the judgment of the court below, canceling the naturalization of the appellant, that he brought the present appeal.

The provision of the law by virtue of which the United States attorney initiated the proceeding in the court below is that clause of section 15 of the act entitled 'An act to establish a Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, and to provide for a uniform rule for the naturalization of aliens throughout the United States' (34 Stat.pt. 1, p. 601 (Comp. St. Sec. 4374)), reading as follows:

'That it shall be the duty of the United States district attorneys for the respective districts, upon affidavit showing good cause therefor, to institute proceedings in any court having jurisdiction to naturalize aliens in the judicial district in which the naturalized citizen may reside at the time of bringing the suit, for the purpose of setting aside and cancelling a

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