No proposal to extend NRC to states other than Assam: Union Government

-Dharmananda Deb, Advocate-

The Union Government on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that National Register of Citizens of India (NRC) will be limited to Assam “for now” and that “at present” the government did not have plans to extend the project to other states. The information was shared with the Parliament as a written reply by Minister of State of  Ministry of Home Affairs, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir. The reply was submitted by MP Ahir in response to the unstarred question no.1235 question posed by Trinamool Congress MP Prasun Banerjee.

Question- Whether there is any proposal to extend the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to States other than Assam ?

Answer- National Register of Citizens (NRC) Assam was prepared in 1951 as a non-statutory process by recording particulars of all the persons enumerated during 1951 Census. The exercise to update NRC 1951 is
being conducted under the special provisions in respect of State of Assam under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship Rules, 2003. At present there is no proposal to extend the National Register of Citizens to States other than Assam.

Second question by Prasun Banerjee:

(b) If so, the details thereof ?
In the reply to the said second question, Hansraj Ahir wrote:
Answer- (b): Question does not arise.

It is also to be mentioned here that very recently, Meghalaya High Court in disposing a Writ Petition opined that the NRC is “defective” as many foreigners “became Indians” due to the exercise and original Indians were left out.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in the month of September,2018 suggested that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should be implemented across all states of the country. While addressing a seminar on on “NRC: Defending the borders, securing the culture ” in New Delhi, Sonowal said, “With the implementation of NRC in all the states, we can protect all Indians”.

Minister of State in Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir submitted a written reply on Tuesday in response to the separate unstarred question no. 1267 posed by Trinamool Congress MP Dibyendu Adhikari who was elected to Loksabha from Tamluk parliamentary constituency of West Bengal, said:

“ The National Register of Citizens (NRC), Assam is the Register containing names of Indian Citizens in Assam in accordance with the provisions of Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. The complete draft NRC,Assam has been published on 30.07.2018. The Hon’ble Supreme Court is monitoring the progress of NRC update. The process of claims & objections on the draft NRC has started on 25.09.2018 and will remain open upto 31.12.2018 whereafter the verification process will commence from 15.02.2019 in accordance with the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. Any person, who does not find his/her name in the draft NRC may file the claims in accordance with Clause 6 of the Schedule to Citizenship Rules, 2003. Similarly, any person can file objections in respect of inclusion of any name in the draft NRC list. The NRC exercise has been carried out in a totally objective, transparent and meticulous manner. Mechanism to deal with the grievances in a fair and objective manner is already in place.”

Interestingly, the updating process of the NRC in Assam is being done under the direct supervision and monitoring of the Supreme Court of India.