Allahabad HC to hear plea for having a fixed NPR data collection proforma

The Allahabad High Court will hear on Friday a plea for the direction to the Union government to prepare a proforma for the collection of country's residents data for updating the National Population Register.

A Lucknow bench of the high court sought on Wednesday the Centre's preliminary stand on city resident Manvendra Pratap Singh's plea, which said the Union government has decided to update the NPR database along with the India 2021 house-listing and housing census from April to September 2020.

A bench of justices Govind Mathur and Chandra Dhari Singh asked the Centre's counsel to seek the government stand on the plea by Friday.

In his petition filed through advocate Aftab Alam, Singh submitted that the central government has issued an instruction manual for updating the NPR 2020 as per the provisions of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue Of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003.

As per the instruction manual, the NPR of all "usual residents" of the country was created in year 2010, the petitioner said adding the field work for collecting the NPR data had been undertaken along with the house-listing and Housing Census 2010.

The petitioner said the scheme for creation of NPR, undertaken as per the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the rules of 2003, would contain details of the country's "usual residents", irrespective of their citizenship.

"During the aforesaid process, the Aadhaar number from each residents shall also be collected in addition to his/her mobile number, election photo identity cards or voter ID card number, Indian Passport number and driving license number, if available with residents, the petition said.

Elaborating on the above facts, the petitioner claimed that the data collected from the residents shall later be made foundation for the creation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and therefore, it would be necessary for the citizens to have a copy of the pro-forma in which all his personal data is provided by him.

The petitioner further stated in the PIL that according to Rules 2003, no adverse decision can be taken by the government on including or excluding a resident from the NRC without hearing him properly for which he needed to be provided with all the material, the government may rely for its decision.

The formation of a fixed proforma for the NPR updating exercise would come handy for the purpose of supply of information to a citizen in case of his exclusion from the NRC, the petitioner argued.