M. Mohsin Alam Bhat & Aashish Yadav expensive appellate procedures are likely to exclude most people. Excluded persons may end up in detention centres as numerous persons declared foreigners by the tribunals have.24 India is yet to work out – nor has it shown any inclination to work out – any diplomatic arrangement with Bangladesh. The fact that many declared foreigners may be born in India will add to the unlikelihood of this diplomatic arrangement. Moreover, the Indian government maintains that Assam’s NRC is an internal matter for India and will have no consequence for Bangladesh.25 The government of Bangladesh has also maintained the same position.26 Consequently, any deportation of declared foreigners is highly doubtful. The Supreme Court’s aversion to resolve some key legal questions has further intensified the threat of citizenship revocation. During the documentation process, the NRC administration decided not to apply birthright citizenship – right of every person born in India before 1 July 1987 to qualify as a citizen – in the case of Assam. It argued that Assam, by virtue of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, was an exception and only those born in Assam before 25 March 1971 and their descendants would count as citizens. Consequently, thousands of people born between these two dates were excluded from the NRC enumeration despite meeting the legal definition of a citizen. Rather than legally assessing this overtly narrow – and rather implausible – reading of India’s citizenship laws before the enumeration, the Court postponed deciding it. Now the excluded persons will remain in a state of uncertainty and at the risk of citizenship revocation until an authoritative judicial ruling. In all likelihood, the eventual effect of the exclusion from the NRC may be the denial of the basic rights associated with citizenship like the right to vote, the freedom of movement and socioeconomic rights. Potentially, numerous individuals may also lose their citizenship status altogether, amounting to citizenship revocation. While there is no official record of the ethnicity and religious identity of the persons excluded from the NRC, unofficial sources suggest that a sizable number include Bengali and non-Bengali Hindus.27 Arguably in response to this, the Indian government sharpened its efforts to introduce an amendment to the Citizenship Act in order to make non-Muslims immune from citizenship revocation, and introduced the CAA in December 2019.28 24 Assam has also been claiming to expand the existing network of detention centres. Until now, six detention centres have been in operation. These centres are being operated from within jail compounds without any adequate facilities. Despite the extensiveness of the pleas by civil society in the last couple of years, the Court ultimately only passed a narrow order of limiting the detention, first to 3 years and more recently to 2 years. See In Re: Contagion of COVID 19 Virus in Prisons (2020) Suo Moto Writ Petition (C) No. 1/2020. 25 The Hindu (2 March 2020), NRC will not impact Bangladesh, Foreign Secretary Shringla tells Dhaka. https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/nrc-wont-have-implications-on-bangladesh-says-foreign-secretaryshringla/article30962241.ece. (consulted 11 July 2020) 26 NDTV (19 January 2020), Citizenship Law Unnecessary But Is India's Internal Matter: Bangladesh PM. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/bangladesh-prime-minister-sheikh-hasina-says-citizenship-amendment-act-nrc-werenot-necessary-but-is-2166346. (consulted 11 July 2020). See also, Scroll (18 July 2019), Bangladesh government expresses concerns over Assam’s NRC process for first time. https://scroll.in/latest/930979/bangladesh-government-expressesconcerns-over-assams-nrc-process-for-first-time. (consulted 11 July 2020) 27 Sabrang India (17 September 2019), Over 7 lakh Hindus among those excluded from the NRC, leaked data suggests. https://sabrangindia.in/article/over-7-lakh-hindus-among-those-excluded-nrc-leaked-data-suggests. (consulted 24 June 2020) 28 The Times of India (11 December 2019), ‘Five lakh Bengali Hindu NRC rejects will get citizenship’. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/five-lakh-bengali-hindu-nrc-rejects-will-getcitizenship/articleshow/72465093.cms. (consulted 24 June 2020) 30 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Working Papers