The Foreigners Act, 1946, is an Act of the Imperial Legislative Assembly that grants the Central Government powers to regulate the entry, presence, and departure of non-citizens in India. It was enacted on November 23, 1946, before India's independence, to confer powers upon the Interim Government to manage foreigners and protect national security during the turbulent period of World War II and impending Partition.
The Act defines a "foreigner" simply as "a person who is not a citizen of India" under Section 2(a). Its core mechanism is Section 3, which empowers the Central Government to issue orders to prohibit, regulate, or restrict a foreigner's entry, movement, and continued presence in India. A critical provision is Section 9, which places the burden of proving that a person is a citizen of India upon that person. Violations, such as overstaying a visa, are penalized under provisions like those substituted by the Foreigners (Amendment) Act, 2004, which introduced stricter punishments under Section 14.
The Act is a foundational part of India's immigration framework, operating alongside the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, and the Citizenship Act, 1955. Orders made under it, such as the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, established quasi-judicial bodies to determine a person's foreigner status. A significant recent change is its connection to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which exempts certain religious minority groups from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan from being treated as "illegal migrants" under the Foreigners Act, 1946. The Act has been recently repealed by the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025.