SC extends deadline for filing claims for inclusion in Assam NRC till Dec 31

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 12

In a big relief to more than 40 lakh people left out of the Draft Nation Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the Supreme Court on Wednesday extended from December 15 to December 31 the deadline for filing of claims and objections for inclusion of names.

The Final Draft NRC list was published on July 30 in which 2.89 crore names out of the 3.29 crore people were included while 40,70,707 people failed to make it to the list.

Of those left out 37,59,630 names had been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 were put on hold.

Earlier, the top court had on November 1 extended the deadline for filing of claims and objections for inclusion of names from November 25 to December 15. It had allowed claimants to rely on five additional documents objected to by NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi also extended the date for commencement of verification process from February 1 to February 15, 2019.  

On behalf of the Assam government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that out of 40 lakh people excluded from the state's NRC, 15 lakh had filed claims for inclusion and in the last weeks too many people filed claims.

The Bench – which also included Justice Rohinton F Nariman -- ordered that the copies of the draft NRC be made available for inspection by common people at District Collector, sub-divisional, circle; gram panchayat offices so that people can either seek inclusion or object to wrongful inclusions in the NRC.

It directed NRC authorities to accept all valid documents regardless of the date of issuance after senior advocate Kapil Sibal complained that NRC authorities were not considering legally valid documents, which have come into being after August 31, 2015, for verifying claims for inclusion. August 31, 2015 was deadline for registration of names in the draft NRC.