Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Supreme Court (SC) today sought replies from the central and Assam governments on the steps taken to issue identity cards to those whose names were included in the NRC final list and rejection slips to those excluded from it.
When the final NRC list was published in 2019, a total of 3.11 crore names were included, and those of 19 lakh were excluded from the NRC.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Assam Sankhyalaghu Sangram Parishad and All Assam Minority Students' Union had filed a petition in the Supreme Court, complaining that those included in the final NRC list were facing different kinds of harassment and seeking the issue of identity cards for them so that they don't get harassed further. The petitioners said, "Despite the publication of the NRC list in August 2019, the authorities have failed to take the mandatory steps under the law, which is the issuance of national identity cards to the 3.11 crore citizens found eligible, as required under Rule 13 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003, and also the issuance of rejection slips and initiation of appeals under Paragraph 8 of Schedule 2 Rule 4A of the said Rules for 19 lakh persons excluded from the NRC."
The hearing of the petitions was held in the court of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe. During the hearing, the Jamiat's senior advocate, Kapil Sibal, pointed out that notices had also been served on the Centre and Assam governments earlier, but they did not furnish any reply.
On the other hand, former NRC coordinator Hitesh Dev Sharma filed an interlocutory application, which stated that the NRC list should be re-verified, as there were several inaccuracies in it. Sharma's counsel, Manish Goswami, raised issues in the petition that were substantially connected to the pending petitions and sought its tagging with the ongoing proceedings. The SC directed that Sharma's petition should be tagged with the other pending petitions.
Jamiat said in its petition, "Lack of any action has resulted in prejudice with those whose names were included, as they remain subject to uncertainty and arbitrary treatment."
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