Supreme Court asks if those left out are being heard, mulls survey

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it could consider re-verification of 10 per cent of the people in Assam who were excluded from the draft national register of citizens (NRC) published recently. The court also raised doubts over the Centre’s proposal to allow a claimant to change his legacy document for inclusion in the draft.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R.F. Nariman told state coordinator for NRC Prateek Hajela that the court would like to examine the correctness of the draft register through a sample survey of at least 10 per cent of those who failed to make it.

“We are of the view that the court should consider the necessity of carrying out the sample re-verification of at least 10 per cent of the names included in the final draft NRC,” the bench said, asking Mr Hajela to inform about the time needed to complete the exercise.

The court also indicated that the process of filing claims and objections related to the final draft of the NRC would now commence from September 7, instead of August 30 as proposed in the Centre’s standard operating procedure (SOP).

The bench will now take up the matter on September 5.

While examining the NRC and the SOP, the court expressed reservations over a clause allowing submission of new documents, which were not given earlier, by those left out of the NRC.

Justice Gogoi told attorney-general K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, that the government cannot “re-start” the whole exercise of verification of names by permitting claimants to establish a fresh legacy with new documents.

Mr Venugopal said that apart from the legacy documents a claimant would also be required to furnish other eligibility documents. Defending the provision for allowing claimants to give fresh additional documents, the AG said that since losing citizenship has serious consequences a second chance has been given to claimants to prove their credentials. Justice Gogoi said accepting “additional admissible legacy and linkage documents” may lead to problems.

Justice Gogoi gave the example of a person who submitted a linkage document to establish a legacy with a person as his father but failed to make it to the NRC. But now, in the wake of the provision allowing fresh additional paper, the same person may claim a legacy with another person citing him as his grandfather, the court said. “This may lead to an anomalous situation as the entire family tree can be changed by a person on account of the decision to grant a person liberty to file additional documents,” the court said. Assam’s second draft NRC list was published on July 30 in which out of 3.29 crore people, names of 2.89 crore were included. Names of 40.7 lakh people did not figure in the list. Of these, 37.59 lakh names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 put on hold. On July 31, the apex court had made it clear that there will be no coercive action by authorities against over 40 lakh people, whose names do not figure in the NRC. The first draft of the NRC in Assam was published on the intervening night of December 31, 2017, and January 1. Names of 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated then. Assam, which has faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only Indian state which has an NRC which was first prepared in 1951.