New Delhi: In a significant move, the Supreme Court has admitted a writ petition for revision of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the supplementary list of the register – updated in 2019 in Assam – and has issued notices to the Union government, the state government, the official appointed to oversee the implementation of the NRC in Assam, and the registrar general of India (RGI), seeking their responses on the matter.
While the draft NRC published in July 2018 kept out 1.9 million people, the supplementary NRC list, published in August 2019, had more than 31.1 million who were found to be eligible for inclusion in the registry.
The SC’s August 22 order, passed by a bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Atul Chandurkar, has come at a time when Assam is just months away from a crucial election.
Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has already been flogging the bogey of ‘illegal immigrants’ and ‘Bangladeshis’ to attract the votes of the majority Assamese community.
Organisations like the All Assam Students Union (AASU), at the forefront of the anti-foreigner agitation in the state, had already punched holes into the draft NRC, claiming that the 1.9 million figure was too low for likely ‘illegal immigrants’ residing in the north-eastern border state.
Sarma, in tandem, has also been telling local reporters that his government would approach the apex court for re-verification of the NRC. In 2021, he had said his government would petition the SC for re-verification of up to 20%of the entries in areas bordering Bangladesh and 10% in interior areas of Assam.
Soon, the then NRC coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma, had pleaded for a complete, comprehensive and time-bound re-verification of the draft NRC and the supplementary list under Clause 4 (3) of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2023. In 2020, Hitesh Dev Sarma had submitted to the Gauhati high court that instead of looking into the anomalies in the draft, the RGI had asked the NRC coordinator’s office to wind up the operation by issuing rejection slips.
The latest petition seeking re-verification has been filed by Hitesh Dev Sarma, who is seen as a close aide to the chief minister in the political corridors of Assam.
Though the SC-monitored update process of the NRC in the state was carried out during the watch of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it had rejected the draft NRC because a large swathe of the 19 million people kept out of it belonged to the Bengali Hindu community, considered a strong vote-bank of the BJP in the state.
Since then, the process has been under a logjam with rejection slips yet to be issued to the people excluded from the draft. As per the procedure, once the rejection slips are issued, the individuals can then approach the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) to challenge the decision. As per an Economic Times report, the registrar general has not yet notified the NRC.
On August 22, senior advocate Manish Goswami, appearing for Hitesh Dev Sarma, said, “There were several concerns that the NRC contained major errors and was not error-free. In this regard, the former Assam NRC Coordinator filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court.”
According to The Sentinel, Goswami said, “We highlighted the glaring discrepancies before the apex court, and our plea was for a complete re-verification of the NRC. This case is not directed against anyone; our only demand is for an error.”