178 SOCIO-LEGAL REVIEW VOL. 17 exclusions from the NRC150 have forced the government to re-think a pan-India NRC.151 Following the 2004 Amendment, the next major step was a notification brought by the Central Government (“2015 Amendment”) to exempt certain classes of foreigners from deportation.152 The most striking aspect of the eligibility requirements under the 2015 Amendment is its specific reference to religious identity.153 Before the 2015 Amendment, religion-based bias was evident in Articles 6 and 7 of the Indian Constitution, and in the examination of one’s parents’ citizenship status for birth-based citizenship,154 a thinly veiled inquiry into the religion of the applicant under the Citizenship Act.155 With the 2015 Amendment, Indian citizenship laws were slowly shedding religion-neutrality in favour of actively protecting specific communities. More recently, the 2019 Act was passed to exempt specific categories of individuals from being categorised as illegal migrants.156 To qualify under the 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 PTI, ‘Sitting MLA, Former Legislator, Kargil Veteran Excluded from NRC’ (Business Standard, 31 August 2019) <https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/sitting-mla-former-legislator-kargil-veteran-excluded-from-119083100949_1.html> accessed 28 July 2021. PTI, ‘No Decision yet on Pan-India Rollout of National Register of Citizens, Centre tells Rajya Sabha’ (The Financial Express, 17 March 2021) <https://www.financialexpress.com/ india-news/no-decision-yet-on-pan-india-rollout-of-national-register-of-citizens-centre-tells-rajya-sabha/2214649/> accessed 28 July 2021; Business Today, ‘“PM Modi is Right, no Talks on Nationwide NRC Yet,” Says Amit Shah’ (Business Today, 25 December 2019) <https://www. businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/pm-modi-was-right-no-talks-on-nationwide-nrc-yetamit-shah/story/392598.html> accessed 28 July 2021; Chetan Chauhan, ‘Amit Shah Reiterates Call for Pan-India National Register of Citizens: All you Need to Know’ (Hindustan Times, 11 December 2019) <https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/amit-shah-reiteratescall-for-pan-india-national-register-of-citizens-all-you-need-to-know/story-XxQ9SqXwb1giP1A6zuiDRP.html> accessed 28 July 2021; Soumya Das, ‘Centre has Pan-India NRC Plan, Claims WB BJP Booklet’ (Deccan Herald, 7 January 2020) <https://www.deccanherald.com/ national/east-and-northeast/centre-has-pan-india-nrc-plan-claims-wb-bjp-booklet-792005.html> accessed 28 July 2021. Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2015; Ministry of Home Affairs, Notification GSR 686 (E) 7 September 2015 <https://upload.indiacode.nic.in/showfile?actid=AC_ CEN_ 5_ 23_0 0 0 48 _194631_1523947455673&t y pe = order&f ilena me =Foreig ner s%20 (Amendment)%20Order,%202015.pdf> accessed 28 July 2021 (“Notification dated 7 September 2015”). Notification dated 7 September 2015, s 2; Ministry of Home Affairs, Notification G.W.R. 702 (E) 18 July 2016 <http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2016/170822.pdf> accessed 28 July 2021. 1955 Act, s 3 (1) (b), s 3 (1) (c). Discussed further infra Part III (c)(i); Constitution of India 1950, art 6, art 7; Jayal (n 23); Jayal (n 27); Niraja Gopal Jayal, ‘The 2016 Citizenship Amendment Bill Consolidates a Trend Towards a Majoritarian and Exclusionary Concept of Indian Citizenship’ (The Caravan, 20 February 2017) <https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/2016-citizenship-amendment-bill-majoritarian-exclusionary>accessed 28 July 2021. 2019 Act, s 2; interestingly, lawyer Nizam Pasha highlights an inherent contradiction in the 2019 Act – if a person does not have documents to prove their citizenship or acquire the