SC extends deadline for Assam NRC final draft till July 30

The Supreme Court today extended the deadline for publication of the final draft of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) from June 30 to July 30 on account of floods in three districts, time consumption in mop-up operations and activities related to database preparation.

The top court accepted the reasons given by the Centre and the NRC state coordinator for over-shooting the June 30 deadline.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman accepted the report filed by NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela detailing the stages at which the preparation of the final NRC draft is, the time that would be taken for the final mop-up operations and the reasons as to why the June 30 deadline could not be adhered to.

Hajela in his report proposed to publish the complete draft on July 30, 2018 and said that the deadline will be maintained under any circumstances.

Giving reasons for overshooting the June 30 deadline, Hajela's report said, "Mop up operations have taken a lot of time. It is humbly submitted that earlier experience indicates that in any activity the initial/starting phase takes a lot of time. After stabilisation, whereas 90-95 per cent achievement happens at high speed, the remaining 5 per cent completion takes a lot of time. This has been the case here also."