The Council of State has ruled on appeal this week about the (dis)proportionality of the revocation of Dutch nationality. In those rulings about the termination by operation of law of Dutch nationality, the Council of State ruled that this termination was disproportionate in one (of the four) cases and that the person concerned must regain Dutch nationality with retroactive effect. About the same time as these rulings, Scheers Advocatuur received a decision on objection from the IND, in which the revocation of Dutch citizenship was also found to be disproportionate.

Dutch citizenship had previously been revoked in this case, because the original nationality had not been renounced. The Division had previously declared the appeal to be well-founded and ruled that the IND should have conducted further investigation into the consequences of this revocation.

After a hearing by the IND following this ruling, the revocation of Dutch nationality in a new decision by the IND is still found to be disproportionate and reversed and the client is deemed to have never lost his Dutch nationality. Incidentally, this does not mean that the obligation to renounce the original nationality has also been reversed, because this obligation also revived.

It seems that the IND, although still guided by various rulings, is increasingly working on an actual assessment of the proportionality of incriminating decisions in immigration and nationality law. A positive development, especially if the IND starts doing this more of its own accord!