১০টি নথির ভিত্তিতে এনআরসির দাবি আপত্তি শুরু ২৫ সেপ্টেম্বর, জানাল সুপ্রিম কোর্ট
NRC: Claims & objections to be filed based on 10 documents, says Supreme Court

September 19: The Supreme Court on Wednesday set September 25 as the starting date of filing of claims and objections against the final draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC). The division bench comprising of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton F Nariman also extended the time to file objections by those excluded in the final draft NRC from 30 days to 60 days.

The apex court ordered that, “We are granting a second opportunity to persons who have been left out of draft Assam NRC, keeping in mind the magnitude of the issue.” NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela had submitted a report to the bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and RF Nariman that only 10 of the 15 documents originally permitted to prove citizenship be allowed to be filed with claims and objections by the people whose names have been left out of the final NRC draft.

In response to this, the Supreme Court said that those left out of the Draft NRC can rely on 10 of the 15 documents prescribed. The Bench said, “We are not shutting out the rest of the five documents. All that we are saying is that at this stage claims and objections shall be filed on the basis of 10 documents.” The Bench said it will consider after a month whether to allow the other five documents as well or not.

The bench, which has now posted the matter for hearing on October 23, has sought the view of Prateek Hajela, coordinator of Assam NRC, on stance of the central government with regard to applicability and non-applicability of certain documents for inclusion of names in the NRC

Attorney General KK Venugopal and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta tried to impress upon the top court on behalf of the Centre and Assam Government respectively that it needed to consider allowing the rest of the five documents as most of the people in rural areas we illiterate. But the court repeatedly said it will consider allowing the rest of the five documents for filing of claims and objections after a month.

In the second and final draft of the NRC, published in July, 2.9 crore out of the total 3.29 crore applicants were included. The names of 40.07 lakh applicants did not find a place in the historic document. The NRC will include the names of all Indian citizens who have been residing in Assam before March 25, 1971