SC seeks report on ramification of Assam NRC draft

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a detailed report from the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator, Prateek Hajela, regarding why those who want to be included in the NRC draft list were asked to give fresh additional documents.

The top court had earlier directed the Assam NRC coordinator to provide it with the data of district-wise percentage of the population excluded from the NRC draft in the state.

A two-judge bench of the Apex Court, headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi and also comprising of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, had sought the response of all the stakeholders including All Assam Students Union and All Assam Minority Students Union on the Centre's Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in this regard.

Earlier, the apex court had directed Hajela to make available the copies of draft NRC to the general public of the state.

The top court had said that claims and objections in connection with the Assam NRC issue will be accepted from August 30.

The Supreme Court on August 7 held Hajela and Registrar General of India guilty of contempt of court, reprimanding them for making statements to media on the NRC Assam modalities when nothing had been informed to the court.

The second draft, which was released on July 30, included names of 2.89 crore people, out of 3.29 crore applicants in Assam, leaving out names of nearly 40 lakh people.

On July 31, the court, while the hearing case, observed that the process of filing objections by those whose names were not listed in the NRC draft should be fair, and directed the Centre to prepare a standard operating procedure (SOP) for claims and objections.

The NRC draft for Assam features the names, addresses, and photographs of all Indian citizens residing in the state of Assam before March 25, 1971.