New Delhi: Around 40 lakh people whose names are not present in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam can file claims and objections starting September 25, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday, offering a 60-day window for a second attempt to claim citizenship.
Restraining the NRC coordinator from disclosing any details to anyone regarding claims and verifications, the court restricted, for now, the number of documents that can be used to prove citizenship to 10, instead of the 15 documents that were allowed at the time of the draft NRC’s publication in July.
Rejecting the Centre’s plea to allow use of all 15 documents, a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Nariman said, “We are giving a second chance to the 40 lakh excluded from the NRC list as a matter of concession. We can’t open everything during the second round.” “Usually a person cannot have the opportunity to prove it (legacy) in a second chance. But keeping in mind the magnitude of the issue, we are permitting the second chance to prove the claim,” it said.
The bench rejected attorney-general K.K. Venugopal’s plea, on behalf of the Central government, that any of all the 15 documents specified in the standard operating procedure for receipt of claims and objections must be allowed for proving the claims.
Posting the matter for hearing on October 23, the apex court directed Prateek Hajela, the coordinator of Assam NRC, to file a report in a sealed cover on the feasibility of using the five excluded documents.
When the AG asked about the rationale behind not allowing the five other documents in the claims process, Justice Gogoi said, “We are not shutting out other documents, which will be considered later. The coordinator has given some confidential information, which we don’t want to disclose in public interest. We don’t want the process of filing claims and objections to be impeded.”
The bench also said that the Centre would not be given a copy of the NRC coordinator’s report on the modalities for receiving claims from those excluded in draft NRC at this stage.
When it was submitted that the Assam Assembly was to meet soon and whether information could be shared with the legislature, the bench said, “The NRC coordinator is not to disclose any details regarding claims and verifications with anyone.”
The 10 legacy documents which are admissible and permitted for use while filing objections include land documents like registered sale deed, permanent residential certificate issued from outside the state, passport and life insurance policy of the relevant period, any license or certificate issued by any government authority of the relevant period, documents showing service or employment under government or public sector undertaking, bank or post office accounts of relevant period, birth certificates issued by the competent authority, educational certificate and records or processes pertaining to courts, provided they are part of a process in a judicial or revenue court. All these documents should be of the relevant period up to the midnight of March 24, 1971.
The final draft NRC list was published on July 30 in which names of 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore people were included. The names of 40,70,707 people did not figure in the list. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold.
The first draft of the NRC for Assam was published on the intervening night of December 31, 2017, and January 1 in accordance with the top court’s direction. Names of 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated then.
Assam, which had faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC which was first prepared in 1951.
