SC for minimising inconvenience of claimants left out in draft Assam NRC

The Supreme Court Wednesday asked the Coordinator of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam to take steps to minimise the "inconvenience" of the people who have filed claims before authorities after being left out in the draft NRC.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman took note of submissions of state NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela that it has been verifying the citizenship claims of left out persons on the basis of "family tree" and land records.

Verification of claims on the basis of family tree was being conducted near the place where most of the relatives of the claimant are residing, he said.

The bench has now posted the matter for hearing on May 8 and asked Hazela to file a report on the progress made towards finalisation of the NRC.

The apex court has already made it clear that it will not extend the July 31 deadline for publication of the final Assam NRC.

It had said the NRC work and Lok Sabha polls can go on simultaneously in the state.

On February 5, the apex court had observed that the Centre is "hell bent" on stalling the Assam NRC work while rapping it for seeking suspension of the process during the polls citing non-availability of security forces.

The draft Assam NRC was published on July 30, 2018 in which the 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 Assam NRC 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 to have an NRC, first prepared in 1951.