Supreme Court Issues Notice to the Centre in Response to the Plea for NRC in Tripura

In response to a petition of the Tripura government seeking the implementation of the National Register for Citizens (NRC), the Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the central government asking it to respond to the petition. Noticeably, the Tripura government has constantly been seeking the implementation of the NRC practice in their state in order to identify illegal immigrants in Tripura.

The Tripura government plea is heard and further actions of issuing a notice to the central government are done by a bench of justices comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph.

Notably, before this, the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued a press releases saying that so far they are not thinking about issuing NRC in the state. The MHA press release had stated, “Union Home Minister met a delegation of INPT led by its President Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl on October 4, 2018. However, no assurance of any kind was given by Union Home Minister regarding the implementation of NRC in the state of Tripura. It is categorically asserted that no decision has been taken on the issue of NRC in Tripura.”

There has been much confusion regarding the final decision of the NRC implementation in the state as everybody has a different story to tell in response to the uncertainties. The MHA had, however, published the press release making its stand clear after the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) leaders had claimed that Home Minister Singh had assured of ‘taking initiatives’ for the revising NRC in Tripura.

As so far Assam is the only state having the NRC implemented in the state in order to identify the illegal immigrants, some other states of the country too are showing their interest towards it. Among the states showing interest in the NRC, Tripura is in the lead and the indigenous people and political parties of the state are demanding for an assured implementation of it.