NPR: SC issues notice to Modi govt

Official file notings contradict Home Ministry assurances

The National Population Register (NPR) preparation along with Census on Friday attracted the Supreme Court’s attention as it served a notice to the Modi government for a detailed response.

A Bench of Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde and Justices Bhushan Gavai and Surya Kant issued the notice, entertaining a petition by Israrul Haque Mondal challenging both the Citizenship Amendment Act and the NPR linked to the controversial Act.

So far the Apex Court had not entertained any petition on NPR as over 60 petitions it accepted for hearing next Wednesday.

The Congress on Friday questioned the claim of the Home Ministry officials that no documents will be asked or biometric taken for the National Population Register (NPR) as the facts are otherwise that 60 crore Aadhaar numbers having the biometric details have already been collected and seeded with the NPR.

The government has given the responsibility of collecting the NPR data side by side with the Census data to the office of the Registrar General of India to claim NPR has nothing to do with the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

The Congress on Friday tweeted: “Who are the people to believe, the official file notings of NPR, which clearly state Aadhaar numbers are necessary, or MHA members who have constantly flipflopped on NRC, NPR & CAA?”

The file notings dated 19-072019 of the Registrar General’s office say: “While updating the NPR, Aadhaar numbers which are not already in the existing NPR database “will also be collected along with various other items”.

A Congress leader accused the government of tagging NPR with collection of the Census data while both fall in different laws, even though falling under the Home Ministry. NPR is covered by the Citizenship Act of 1955 and the Census by the Census Act of 1948.