Assam NRC: SC Extends Time For Submission Of Claims To Dec 31

The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Nariman on Wednesday extended to December 31 the deadline for the submission of claims and objections by individuals excluded from the first draft of the NRC for the state of Assam as published on July 30.

Earlier, the last date for submission was December 15. Consequently, the process of commencement of verification scheduled on February 1, 2019, has been shifted to February 15, 2019.

To facilitate filing of objections against wrongful inclusions, the court also directed copies of the draft NRC to be made available for inspection at convenient locations i.e. Office of the District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioner, Sub-Divisional Offices (Civil), Circle Offices and Gram Panchayats. Further, so far as the filing of objections are concerned, the same may be done at the District Headquarters.

The NRC authority is also ordered to accept List B documents that are found to be legally valid, regardless of the date of issuance of the same.

Where the document relied on or introduced by a claimant as proof of their citizenship is not of the applicant themselves but that of an ancestor, the applicant has to submit documents as enumerated in List B of the claim form, including birth certificate, ration card etc, to establish their relationship with such ancestor.

The total number of persons included in the Complete Draft NRC was 2,89,83,677, leaving out as many as 40,70,707 for being ineligible for inclusion. Out of the aforesaid 40,70,707 names, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and 2,48,077 names were kept on hold.