NRC: Lens on rejection orders; setting up of tribunals delayed

Even after appointment of members of proposed Foreigners Tribunal and building premises taken on rent, the fate of Assam government’s ambitious plan of setting up 200 Foreigners Tribunal hangs in balance.

Pointing out that state government was waiting for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) office to start issuing “rejection slips” to those whose application for inclusion of names in the NRC was rejected, officials sources, however, indicated that process may be further delayed as new state coordinator for the NRC Hitesh Dev Sarma, has proposed to recheck rejection orders.

Pointing out that some of the rejection orders were found to be faulty, the NRC authorities said that it was necessary that proper reason for the rejection of names should be given to every individual to make the whole exercise effective.

The process of issuing the rejection orders was to start from March but has been delayed due to the lockdown.

Claiming that state government was ready to make these Tribunals functional, sources said that the government has decided to set up 1,000 new tribunals to deal with the cases of those whose applications for inclusion of names in the NRC were rejected.

Informing that in the first phase, 200 Foreign Tribunals would be set up, sources said that accordingly Tribunal members were appointed and rented houses were taken.

The selection process of other Tribunal staff is also complete, but they are yet to be appointed.

Around 1.9 million out of 33 million applicants were excluded from the final NRC draft published on August 31, 2019. Each of them was supposed to have been issued a “rejection order” spelling out the reasons for their exclusion.

According to the procedures framed under the supervision of the Supreme Court, a person would be entitled to a 120-day window to appeal for inclusion after receiving such an order at the Foreigners’ Tribunals in Assam.