NRC Assam: SC extends NRC final list deadline by a month, asks to publish list on August 31

New Delhi: In a recent development to the NRC deadline extension plea made before the Supreme Court by the central government, the top court has permitted to extend the deadline. As per the latest verdict of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the deadline to publish the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list has been extended to August 31.

The SC verdict came following the requests and pleads made by the centre and the NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela. The government had stated that completing the NRC within the previously framed deadline of 31 July would not be possible and it would need some more time to tweak the processes for inclusion of names in the list.

Speaking on behalf of the government, the central government’s second most senior law officer Tushar Mehra had told the Apex court that more time will be needed to eliminate the names of the illegal immigrants from the NRC list. He has also added that the list is yet to be completed with many illegal immigrants name to be cut from it and to include the names of many citizens whose names are left out in the list.

Now the Supreme Court has directed the NRC coordinator to publish a public notice wherein all stakeholders will be asked to appear before the court on August 7 at 3 pm. On that day, their issues regarding the NRC will be considered as the petitions of the complainants will be heard by the court.

However, while extending the deadline of NRC final list, the centre and state government’s plea to seek 20 per cent sample verification for finding out wrongful inclusions or exclusions in the NRC has been rejected by the Apex court. The court dismissed the plea on this basis that NRC coordinator told the top court that there was no need for further re-verification as over 72 lakh people had been re-verified already.

Also read: “India cannot be world’s refugee capital”- Centre asks SC to extend the NRC deadline