framework to identify “illegal migrants” in the state of Assam. Assertions that they are Bangladeshi citizens have been rejected by Bangladesh, and with no other nationality, these people are stateless. Further, almost two-million people in Assam are at risk of statelessness, having been excluded from the National Register of Citizens. 9. Citizenship in India is governed by the Constitution of India, 1950 8 and the Citizenship Act, 1955 (CA 1955).9 Part II of the Constitution governs acquisition of citizenship at the time of commencement of the Constitution in 1950, and the CA 1955 for the period thereafter. In its original iteration, the CA 1955 allowed acquisition of citizenship by birth (S.3), descent (S.4), registration (S.5), naturalisation (S.6) and by incorporation of territory (S.7). The Act granted citizenship to all persons born on the territory of India and allowed equal access to citizenship through naturalisation and registration, irrespective of religion or immigration status. 10. Through successive amendments, including the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1986 (CAA 1986) 10 and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 (CAA 2003), 11 birth right citizenship in India has been made contingent on parental status, and at present children born on the territory acquire citizenship at birth only if one parent is an Indian citizen, and the other is not an “illegal migrant”. The CAA 2003 inserted the term “illegal migrant” in the law, denying access to citizenship by naturalisation and registration to such persons. 11. The Assam Accord (1985) and Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1985 (CAA 1985) also contributed to the formation of a distinct citizenship standard in the northeastern state of Assam. Assam, which shares a border with Bangladesh, has witnessed violent contestations over the question of cross-border migration. The Assam Movement (19791985), which centred demands to identify and expel foreigners from the state, culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord (1985) and subsequently the CAA 1985. 12 Section 6A of the latter reads as a naturalisation provision that deems persons who have entered Assam from Bangladesh before 24 March 1971 as citizens. Yet this provision has come to be interpreted by officials and courts in Assam as the sole citizenship standard for all persons resident in Assam (including those temporarily resident), to the exclusion of other modes of acquisition of citizenship. This has had the effect of retroactively denying citizenship by birth to persons who were born in Assam prior to 1985, as well as citizenship by descent. 12. In line with the Assam Accord and Section 6A of the CAA 1985, the separate citizenship standard in Assam has also led to large-scale citizenship identification through two parallel processes: individual citizenship determination proceedings in Foreigners’ Tribunals that have been underway since 1964 and the state-wide updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam which began in 2013. As a result of these 8 The Constitution of India, 1950 The Citizenship Act, 1955, available at https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/4210/1/Citizenship_Act_1955.pdf 10 Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1986, available at https://data.globalcit.eu/NationalDB/docs/04_INDI_Citizenship%20Amendment%20Act%201986.pdf 11 Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003, available at https://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2004/E_7_2011_119.pdf 12 Memorandum of Settlement dated 15 August, 1985, available at https://assamaccord.assam.gov.in/sites/default/files/swf_utility_folder/departments/assamaccord_medhassu_in_oid_3/portle t/level_1/files/The%20Assam%20Accord%20-%20English.pdf 9 3