Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/02 assumption of nationality can be very dangerous, the Geneva Conclusions provide the mechanisms for determining who is a stateless person, and the status and appropriate standards of treatment for such persons.103 2.3.4 Passports Act, 1967 Under Article 28 of the 1954 Convention, States are required to “issue stateless persons lawfully staying in their territory travel documents for the purpose of travel outside their territory [and] give sympathetic consideration to the issue of such a travel document to stateless persons in their territory who are unable to obtain a travel document from the country of their lawful residence.”104 The Passports Act, 1967, issues three types of documents: passports, travel documents and certificates of identity. Under Part II of the Passport Rules, 1980, “stateless persons residing in India, foreigners, whose country is not represented in India, or whose national status is in doubt” may qualify for a ‘Certificate of Identity’.105 The Passports Act is by far the most advanced Indian legislation relating to statelessness, as it is the only law so far that recognises such persons in their own category and provides them with an identification document. Nevertheless, clarifications can be made to improve the Act. For instance, a residential permit is required for the application for the issuance of Certificate of Identity. The Rules do not clarify the procedure or criteria for obtaining such residential permit and thus it remains unclear whether a stateless person would be qualified for it. Moreover, the form requires the applicant to provide the information as to his/her “last permanent address abroad,” 106 which is based on the presumption that the individual is a migrant from abroad and fails to consider individuals who may have been residing in India but do not have the necessary documents to prove it, thus this section could be removed or altered. 3. Regional Agreements 3.1 Assam Accord, 1985 The Accord between AASU, AAGSP and the Central Government on the Foreign National Issue (Assam Accord), 1985,107 was a memorandum of settlement signed between the Indian Government and the Assam Movement, which marked the end of the anti-foreigner agitation. Attempts to mitigate minority rights issues gave rise to arbitrary ex lege loss of citizenship in Assam.108 Thus, by virtue of the accord persons who entered Assam: Before 1 January 1966 would be regularised and granted full Indian citizenship rights; after 1 January 1966 but before 24 March 1971 would be detected and registered as ‘foreigners’ and deleted from electoral rolls for at least 10 years; illegally after being 103 UNHCR, ‘Expert meeting: Stateless Determination Procedures and the Status of Stateless Persons: Summary Conclusions.’ ("Geneva Conclusions"), 6-7 December 2010. 104 Article 28, UNGA, Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 28 September 1954, UNTS, vol. 360. 105 Class 2, Schedule II, Part II, Passport Rules, 1980 106 Ibid. 107 Accord between AASU, AAGSP and the Central Government on the Foreign National Issue (Assam Accord), 1985 108 Ghosh, D.P.S., 'Migrants, Refugees and the Stateless in South Asia,’ SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2016, pp. 95-96 12