Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/02 protection of stateless persons, and the prevention and reduction of statelessness have been applied into India’s national legislation. 2. Nationality in the Indian Legal Framework 2.1 The Constitution of India, 1950 After Independence in 1947 but before the enactment of the Constitution in 1950, Indians were still British subjects by virtue of Section 18(3) of the Indian Independence Act.12 With the introduction of the Constitution, the following could be citizens of India: persons born and resident in India;13 persons resident in India and whose parents were born in India,14 persons resident in India for more than five years since the start of the Constitution,15 persons resettling to India from Pakistan after 1 March 1947, persons who migrated to India from Pakistan before 19 July 1948 or those who came afterwards and have been resident in India since immigration,16 persons resident outside India but if either parent or grandparent was born in India.17 The Constitutional provisions concerning citizenship appear relatively inclusive and consider people's freedom of choice post partition. The provisions primarily concern themselves with two broad categories of persons: residents at the time of independence, and 'migrants' whose citizenship was determined by where they intended to reside in light of the complex nature of mass migrations that took place between India and Pakistan. However, between the enactment of the Constitution in 1950 and the enactment of the Citizenship Act in 1955, there was a ‘legal vacuum’: while the nationality framework was being formulated, the people who had been moving across the borders between India and Pakistan had to be taken into consideration. Thus, when the Citizenship Act came into force, their citizenship status was determined by ‘intent’ and followed by attributions of legality and illegality.18 2.2 The Citizenship Act, 1955 The Constitution left future matters of citizenship to be regulated by the Parliament.19 Accordingly, the Parliament enacted the Citizenship Act (‘Principal Act’) in 1955.20 As per the Act, Citizenship could be acquired by birth21, descent22, registration23, naturalisation24 and by incorporation of territory25 12 Section 18(3), Indian Independence Act, 1949 Article 5(a), The Constitution of India, 1950 14 Article 5(b), ibid. 15 Article 5(c), ibid. 16 Article 6(b), ibid. 17 Article 8, ibid. 18 See Roy, A., 'Mapping Citizenship in India.' Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2010, pp 34-35 19 Article 11, The Constitution of India, 1950 20 Subheading, The Citizenship Act, 1955 21 Section 3, ibid. 22 Section 4, ibid. 23 Section 5, ibid. 24 Section 6, Citizenship Act, 1955 25 Section 7, The Citizenship Act, 1955 13 2