Assam NRC deadline will not be extended beyond July 31, says Supreme Court

The top court gave a 'free hand' to Prateek Hajela, Assam NRC coordinator dealing with claims and objections of persons against wrong exclusion or inclusion of citizens in the NRC

The Supreme Court Wednesday made it clear that it will not extend the July 31 deadline for finalisation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman also gave a "free hand" to Prateek Hajela, Assam NRC coordinator dealing with claims and objections of persons against wrong exclusion or inclusion of citizens in the NRC.

The direction came after Hajela informed the bench that many persons, who had objected to inclusion of certain individuals in the draft NRC are not coming forward before panels which are dealing with such complaints.

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.