Those left out of Assam’s NRC can still vote: EC

Guwahati: In a significant move, the Election Commission has made it clear that registered voters left out of the National Register of Citizens will continue to enjoy their voting rights, for now.

Noting that voters excluded from the NRC will have this right as long as their cases are pending before the Foreigners Tribunal, the Election Commission also ruled that D-voters (Doubtful) will also remain on Assam’s electoral rolls unless their cases are decided by the Foreigners Tribunal.

There has been a separate category of voters in Assam whose citizenship was doubtful. In 1997, the EC had created this category while revising the electoral rolls. The names of nearly 1.2 lakh D-voters have already been forwarded to the Foreigners Tribunal. The D-voters were not allowed to exercise their franchise in the recently-held Lok Sabha elections, However, those left out of the NRC have been allowed to vote.

The final NRC, published on August 31, had included 3.11 crore applicants as citizens and excluded 19 lakh.

Those who failed to make it to the final NRC list have been given 120 days to appeal against their exclusion at the Foreigners Tribunals. If not satisfied with the verdict of the tribunals, they will have the option to move the high court and the Supreme Court to establish their citizenship before a court of law.

In order to expedite the trial of over 19 lakh people left out of the NRC, the Assam government is ready to set up 200 new tribunals under the provisions of the Foreigners’ Act.

Saying these tribunals will start functioning as soon as the National Register of Citizens coordinator’s office starts issuing rejection slips to the persons left out of the NRC, state government sources said it is expected almost all those left out of NRC would appeal for the restoration of their citizenship before the tribunals.