Publication of complete draft NRC
D voters and their descendants; declared foreigners and their descendants and people with cases pending in foreigner tribunals and their descendants not to be included in NRC
Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, July 2: The Supreme Court of India has ordered the State NRC authority to publish the complete draft NRC on July 30, 2018.
Hearing the NRC case on Monday, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice RF Nariman ordered this. Earlier, the apex court had set June 30 this year as the deadline for the publication of the complete draft NRC. However, the mid-June wave of floods played the spoilsports for NRC update works in a number of districts in Assam, including the Barak Valley districts. It is because of floods that the State NRC authority has not been able to meet the deadline of June 30 set by the court earlier for the publication of the complete draft NRC.
During the hearing on Monday, State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela told the Supreme Court bench that the State NRC authority would be able to meet the new deadline set by the apex court for the publication of the complete draft NRC.
Meanwhile, after the hearing by the Supreme Court on Monday it became crystal clear that the names of D voters and their descendants would not be included in the NRC being updated. The apex court has also spelt it out in clear terms that the names declared foreigners, their descendents and people of suspected nationalities whose cases are pending in foreigner tribunals and their descendants will not be included in the NRC being updated. The court has further said that in the event of any of the above categories of people making it to the first part NRC draft erroneously, their names will have to be dropped from the NRC being updated.
The Supreme Court is going to hear the case on July 31, 2018.
Meanwhile, in a significant move, the Supreme Court of India has asked Dispur to provide adequate security cover to the State NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela and his family members. The apex court has taken suo motu cognizance of the security threat which Hajela might have faced in the run-up to the publication of NRC. The court has reviewed the security of Hajela and his family members. The apex court also asked Hejela as to what kind of security cover – central security or the security of the Assam Government – he would like to avail of. Hajela opted to the State security cover.
Meanwhile, both the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the Assam Public Works (APW) have welcomed the Supreme Court’s order. AASU president Dipanko Kumar Nath, general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi and adviser-in-chief Samujjal Bhattacharya said that they only wanted a Bangladeshi-free NRC. APW chief Abhijeet Sarma, on the other hand, said that the publication of NRC would expose the number of foreigners staying illegally in the State.