SC To Hear Plea Over Release of Locked NRC Biometrics In Assam
New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday will hear a plea seeking the release of locked biometrics of over 830,000 people in Assam, whose fingerprints have been collected for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
According to Hindustan Times, Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev said that she had filed a petition last year through advocate Tulika Mukherjee, but it was not listed immediately.
''The Supreme Court gives priority to the most important issues while listing the petitions. This is a serious public issue and we are happy that the court has finally agreed to hear it,'' Dev added.
The final draft of the NRC was released in July 2018 and around 40 lakh people were not included in this list. The biometrics of over 27 lakh NRC applicants were collected during the claims and objections phase.
Then in August 2019, about 19 lakh names were included in the additional NRC. However, Aadhaar cards are not being issued to those whose biometrics are locked. Due to this, about 830,000 applicants have been deprived of this.
In the petition, Sushmita Dev argued, "There exists a reasonable basis for classification for the issuance of biometric details of those whose claims and objections have been rejected and their names do not figure in the NRC." However, the people included in the NRC by the supplementary list cannot be treated as a separate category from the person whose name appeared in the first draft list.
She further asserted that Aadhaar is linked to almost all facilities and now voter ID cards are linked.
"Denying Aadhar registration to a person whose names appeared on the list released on 31.08.2019 is clearly arbitrary. There is no law prohibiting the attribution of the Aadhar number to persons whose names were on the final NRC list and therefore such act is not sanctioned by law," she added.
Assam Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass said they have appealed to the Registrar General of India (RGI) to change NRC's Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) so that it will get 830,000 applicants Aadhaar.
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