THE Court of Appeal has affirmed a landmark Supreme Court ruling allowing Bahamian men to automatically pass citizenship to their children, regardless of whether their child is born out of wedlock to non-Bahamian mothers.

However, Attorney General Carl Bethel said yesterday that the ruling will be appealed to the Privy Council, citing the division among the five Court of Appeal judges who heard the case.

Justices Maureen Crane-Scott, Jon Isaacs and Roy Jones affirmed Justice Ian Winder’s ruling while Court of Appeal President Sir Michael Barnett and Justice Milton Evans dissented from their view.

Mr Bethel said yesterday that the ability of all Bahamian men to automatically pass citizenship to their children “remains an open question” despite the new ruling.

“The Court of Appeal was clearly divided on the matter,” he said. “The order now demands a full appeal to the Privy Council so it can be fully and authoritatively decided.”

Nonetheless, attorney Wayne Munroe, who brought the case, said the practical implications of the ruling now have immediate effect.

“I imagine it’s in the tens of thousands, the number of people affected, because it’s going all the way back to 1973,” he said. “The law of the land is what the ruling says. Anybody whose father is Bahamian should go apply for their passport and their voter’s card. Because that’s from the Court of Appeal, every Supreme Court judge will be bound to rule in accordance with it.”

The prospect of amending the Constitution so Bahamian fathers of children born out of wedlock to non-Bahamian mothers could automatically pass citizenship to their children was one of several possibilities Bahamians rejected in the 2016 constitutional referendum.

Legally, the case revolves around the interpretation of Article 6 of the Constitution and whether the reference to “father” in article 14 (1) of the document is applicable when interpreting article 6.

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