Assam NRC: Centre Tells SC Rejection Slips for 1.9 Million Left Out Yet to Be Issued
Assam NRC rejection slips for 1.9 million excluded applicants remain pending as the Supreme Court hears petitions seeking a formal appeal mechanism.
By Pranjal Gupta
New Delhi, October 3: The central government has told the Supreme Court that the process of issuing rejection slips, a key document for challenging exclusion from Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC), is yet to begin as the final list has not been formally notified. At least 1.9 million people excluded from the NRC are awaiting these slips so they can approach the Foreigners Tribunals against their exclusion.
The final NRC was released in August 2019, with 19.07 lakh applicants excluded and 3.11 crore included. The Registrar General of India (RGI), in an affidavit filed before the top court, said the Assam NRC coordinator was still working on a "security regime" for preserving NRC data. The delay has followed since the RGI, which can notify the final NRC only after receiving the data, has not yet received it.
“Enactment of the security regime for NRC data by the state coordinator is in progress, and hence data has not been shared with the Registrar General of India (RGI),” the affidavit said, adding that the process of issuing rejection slips “has not been started yet” by the state NRC coordinator.
The Supreme Court had earlier instructed Assam's NRC coordinator to create a standard system for issuing rejection slips to the roughly 1.9 million people left out of the final citizens' list. These official slips detail the specific legal grounds for an applicant's exclusion and are essential for those seeking to challenge the decision before the quasi-judicial Foreigners Tribunals.
The apex court deferred the matter for hearing on November 6 after the Assam government sought time to file its response. The top court was hearing petitions filed by the Assam State Jamiat Ulama, All Assam Minority Students Union, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and others, seeking rejection slips for those excluded from the NRC and NRC cards for those included in the final list.
RSS Calls for Nation-Wide NRC
Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Samaj Sangh (RSS) on Tuesday sought a nationwide NRC to identify people who had been “wrongly included” in electoral rolls and ensure citizenship for those who had come to India from neighbouring countries under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“When solutions (to population imbalance) are discussed, it is said there should be a National Register of Citizens,” Ambekar said, adding that India’s Partition happened due to population imbalance, a report by The Indian Express quoted him as saying. He argued that in neighbouring countries that became Islamic states after 1947, many people who were left behind were from SC/ST and economically weaker sections and continued to face persecution.
“For those who have come back, ensuring their citizenship through CAA is necessary. Identifying such people through the NRC is necessary. If people have been wrongly included in the voter list, it is necessary to identify them,” he said.
(With PTI Inputs)
