December 12th 2018
The Supreme Court is monitoring the drafting process for and implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. In the previous hearing, the Court established the following timeline regarding objections to the first draft of the NRC:
15.12.2018 – Last date for filing claims and objections for inclusion in the NRC
15.01.2019 – Issuing of Notices after digitisation and completion of all formalities
01.02.2019 – Completion of the verification process
In today’s hearing, the Supreme Court assessed the state of objections and claims filed so far. Mr. Prateek Hajela, the coordinator for the NRC in the State of Assma informed the Bench that a total of 14.8 lakh people had filed claims upon publication of the final draft of the NRC, which had excluded the names of 40 lakh persons.
The Government of the State of Assam represented by Mr. Tushar Mehta sought an extension of time for filing claims and objections to the final draft of the NRC, due to the comparatively few number of claims that had been filed at the present stage.
The Court has accordingly extended the last date of filing claims and objections to the final draft of the NRC from December 15th 2018 to December 31st 2018. The process of verification of claims will start on the February 15th 2019. It has further directed that copies of the draft NRC should be made available in subdivisional and gram panchayat offices to enable people to file their objections and keep track of their applications.
The next hearing will take place in early February.