2021 STATELESSNESS AND THE CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT, 2019 175 attempt towards formulating adequate policy level responses for the issues faced by refugees or stateless persons resident in its territory.129 B. Foundational shifts in Indian citizenship: The illegal migrant issue Traditionally, there have been two categories in citizenship law – citizens and non-citizens. While the 1955 Act deals with the former category for granting, revoking and renouncing citizenship, the 1946 Act focuses on the entry and exit of the latter by inquiring if such foreigners possess the requisite legal documents.130 However, the creation of a third category of the ‘illegal migrant’ has thrown a spanner in the works, by blurring the distinction between citizenship law and immigration law.131 Under Indian law, an illegal migrant is a foreigner who has entered India without valid documents, or one who stays in India beyond the time permitted by travel documents.132 The category of the illegal migrant was initially created to address the specificities of the Assam Accord.133 However, incremental amendments to citizenship law have introduced the category of the illegal migrant for general determinations of citizenship outside of Assam as well.134 129 130 131 132 133 134 domestic law relating to foreigners as in Chimni (n 5); Chakrabarty (n 28); Hegde (n 125); Patel (n 125). Bhattacharjee (n 113). Anubhav Dutt Tiwari and Prashant Singh, ‘Experiencing the Violence of Law: Contextualising the NRC Process in Assam’ 12 [2021] Jindal Global Law Review 29. ibid. 1955 Act, s 2 (1) (b). The creation of ‘illegal migrant’ in citizenship law was a response to the Assam Accord, however, a detailed study of citizenship issues in Assam and the Assamese NRC exercise is beyond the scope of this paper, see Ram (n 30); Rahman (n 118); Sarbananda Sonowal v Union of India (2005) 5 SCC 665 : AIR 2005 SC 2920; Assam Public Works v Union of India, (2019) 9 SCC 70; Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha v Union of India (2015) 3 SCC 1; Chetna Sharma, ‘Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016: continuities and contestations with special reference to politics in Assam, India’ [2019] 4 Asian Ethnicity 522; Alok Kumar, ‘National Register of Citizens and the Supreme Court’ [2018] 53 Economic and Political Weekly 10; Shahnawaz Malik ‘Future of Citizenship Laws in India With Special Reference to Implementation of NRC in Assam’ [2020] 6/4 Journal of Legal Studies and Research <https:// ssrn.com/abstract=3665733>; Gautam Bhatia, ‘Privacy, Data Protection, and the National Population Register’ (Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy, 28 February 2020) <https:// indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/privacy-data-protection-and-the-national-population-register/> accessed 28 July 2021; Mohammad Hassan, ‘The Origin, History and Legality of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019’ [2020] <https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3571012>; Explained Desk, ‘Explained: Who are the 19 Lakh Excluded from Assam NRC, and What Next for them?’ (The Indian Express, 14 September 2019) <https://indianexpress.com/article/ explained/explained-assam-nrc-final-list-published-19-lakh-excluded-5953556/> accessed 28 July 2021. Niraja Gopal Jayal, ‘Indian Citizenship’ in Engin Isin and Peter Nyers (ed), Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies (Routledge 2014).