NRC Assam row : Only those who applied till August 31, 2015 eligible to file claims, raise objections

Dharmananda Deb,Advocate

The Supreme Court Wednesday ordered resumption of filing of claims and objections by around 40 lakh people who were left out in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam. A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman said the process will commence on September 25 and remain open for 60 days. People who submitted applications to prove their Indian citizenship till the last date of August 31, 2015 but were excluded in the final NRC draft are only eligible to file claims and objections.

Those who have not applied till August 31, 2015 cannot apply for filing claims and objections from September 25,2018 to 23rd November,2018 i.e. 60 days.
The NRC State Coordinator has taken approval from the RGI, in regard to the manner of receipt of Claims and Objections. There are three types of FORMS which will be used by the public.

These are- (i) Claim Form,(ii) Claim Form for inclusion by correction in identification as D Voter or Declared Foreigners or persons with pending case in Foreigners Tribunal and/or their descendants,(iii) Objection Form. Those documents submitted earlier are not required to be submitted again. Only those documents which are submitted afresh will be accepted by the LRCR. But if documents submitted earlier was of poor photo-copy quality and the Claimant intends to give a better copy, then in such cases the fresh copies of such documents may be accepted by the LRCR.

The objection can be submitted by any person. But Objection can be submitted only at the NSK covering the residence of the person against whom the objection has been submitted.

On receipt of the Claim/Objection Form, the LRCR will provide a copy of the Claim/Objection Form with a receipt and a Summary of documents received from the Claimant/Objector. The format of “Summary of Documents Received” is same as the one used during original Application Form receipt in the year 2015 . The acknowledgement receipt will be computer generated. Claimants may also submit the Claim Form without any additional documents praying only for re-consideration of eligibility based on the documents already submitted. In such cases, they may write this in Side D of the Form under the heading “GROUND FOR SUBMISSION OF CLAIM”.

Claims can only be submitted at the NRC SEVA KENDRA (NSK) where the Claimant had submitted the Application Form earlier. Even if an applicant has changed address after submission of Application Form, Claim is to be submitted only at the NSK where the NRC Application was submitted originally. The claimant will not be allowed to change Legacy Person in the Claim Form from the one originally submitted in the NRC application Form in the year 2015 . No fresh family tree is to be submitted by the Claimant.

The claims can be filed for reconsideration of eligibility based on the following ten documents (List-A) :
• Land documents like Registered Sale Deed, Records of land rights up to March 24, 1971 (midnight)
• Permanent Residential Certificate issued from outside the State up to March 24, 1971 (midnight)
• Passport issued by the Government of India up to March 24, 1971 (midnight)
• Life Insurance Corporation of India Insurance Policy (LICI) of the relevant period up to March 24, 1971 (midnight)
• Any license/certificate issued by any government authority of relevant period i.e. up to March 24, 1971 (midnight)
• Document showing service/employment under Government/Public Sector undertaking up to March 24, 1971 (midnight)
• Bank/Post Office Accounts of relevant period i.e. up to March 24, 1971 (midnight)
• Birth certificates issued by the competent authority up to March 24, 1971 (midnight)
• Educational certificate issued by Board/Universities up to March 24, 1971 (midnight)
• Records/processes pertaining to court up to March 24, 1971 (midnight) provided they are part of a processing in a judicial or revenue court.
Insofar as five remaining documents (which were relied upon originally) are concerned, the Court has for the time being kept the issue open and asked NRC Co-ordinator Prateek Hajela to give his views on the permissibility of placing reliance on those five documents for claims and objections. The five documents are:
• Names in NRC, 1951
• Names in Electoral Roll upto 24th March, 1971
• Citizenship Certificate; and Refugee Registration Certificate
• Certified copies of pre-1971 Electoral Roll, particularly, those issued from the State of Tripura
• Ration Card

The next date of hearing on the matter is scheduled before the Hon`ble Supreme Court on 23rd October,2018 and after finalization by the Hon`ble Apex Court of our country detailed manner in regard to disposal of Claims and Objections will be public.

It is mentioned here that claim can also be accepted for inclusion by correction in identification as D Voter or Declared Foreigners or persons with Pending case in Foreigners Tribunal and/or their descendants and those persons in whose cases Judicial Authority/Foreigners Tribunal has declared them as Indian Citizen but whose names are not included in Draft NRC by submitting their specific CLAIM FORM.

Blank Forms for claim and objection will be made available at the NSKs and can be downloaded from the NRC website. There will be separate forms for two types of claim and one type of Objection. The final draft of the NRC was published on July 30 and included the names of 2.89 crore people out of total 3.29 applicants with more than 40 Lakhs 70 Thousands 707 people being left out. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold.The matter of making corrections in spellings etc. will also be communicated at a later date by the NRC Authority.