Apex court gives 60-day window to those left out
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday opened the filing of claims and objections for inclusion and exclusion of names in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam, in which around 40 lakh people have been left out.
A bench headed by CJI-designate Ranjan Gogoi made it clear that second opportunity was being given to those
left out of the NRC, keeping in mind the “enormous magnitude” of the issue.
It said the claims and objections could be filed for 60 days starting September 25.
“We are of the view that all that which we are required to do at this stage is to open the filing of claims and objections concerning inclusion in the draft NRC published in July this year,” the bench, which also comprised Justice R F Nariman, said.
“Usually a person cannot have the opportunity to prove it in a second chance. But keeping in mind the magnitude of the issue, we are permitting the second chance to prove the claim,” it said.
The bench referred to the 15 documents, to be used for verification of the citizenship claims of those who have been
left out, and said that for the time being, only ten could be used for ascertaining the claims for 30 days from September 25.
It said the issue whether the five other documents could also be permitted for ascertaining the citizenship claims, would be decided after Prateek Hajela, the coordinator of Assam NRC, offer his suggestions on these documents.
It directed Hajela to file a report in a sealed cover on the feasibility of using the five excluded documents, in veri--
fying claims and objections concerning the finalisation of the NRC.
It also cautioned him against sharing any information with any authority including “the legislature, the executive and the judiciary without prior leave of the court”.
“We have found out that the five documents are capable of being manufactured,” the bench said.
Highlighting the possible abuse of certain documents, the bench said a legacy document establishing the familytree was allowed.
It gave an example saying suppose a person had claimed that he was the grandson of Mr ‘X’, which was found to be incorrect by authorities. Now, the same person cannot claim that he was the grandson of Mr ‘Y’ to get included in the list.
Attorney General K K Venugopal and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the Assam government respectively, said the left out persons needed to be given an opportunity as the “consequences are grave”.