Assam NRC: SC fixes December 15 as deadline for filing claims, objections

Assam NRC: SC fixes December 15 as deadline for filing claims, objections

News:

1. The Supreme Court (SC) has allowed more than 40 lakh people excluded from the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam to use five additional documents, including the ration card, to claim their Indian legacy.

Important Facts:

2. The Supreme Court has also extended the deadline for filing claims and objections of people whose names were not included in the final draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) to December 15,2018.
3. The deadline for issuing notices to claimants, after digitisation and completion of all formalities, is January 15, 2019.
4. The verification of their claims would begin on February 1 next year.
5. Moreover the claimants have been allowed to rely on five additional documents by the SC as follows:

• NRC, 1951
• Citizenship certificate
• Refugee registration certificate
• Certified copies of the pre-1971 electoral rolls, particularly those issued from the State of Tripura.
• Ration card issued prior to March 24, 1971

6. The court had earlier been circumspect about the use of these five records.
7. Earlier the inclusion of five new additional documents was objected by the NRC coordinator on the basis that these documents could be easily forged.
8. But the court nullified these claims as based entirely on a possibility of abuse which, however, strong, cannot be an acceptable reason in law to exclude the documents from consideration,” .
9. About NRC:

• The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is the list of Indian citizens of Assam. It was prepared in 1951, following the census of 1951.
• NRC updation was taken up in Assam as per a Supreme Court order in 2013 to wean out cases of illegal migration from Bangladesh and other adjoining areas.
• NRC updation has been carried out under The Citizenship Act, 1955, and according to rules framed in the Assam Accord.