Supreme Court Urges Action on NRC Appeal Process for Excluded Individuals
Supreme Court Takes Notice of NRC Exclusions
File image of The Supreme Court of India. (Photo: @airnewsalerts/X)
New Delhi, July 21: On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Central Government, the Assam state authorities, and other involved parties regarding a petition that calls for the urgent initiation of the appeal process for over 19 lakh individuals who were excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) published in Assam in 2019.
A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, was reviewing a petition submitted by the Assam State Jamiat Ulama.
During the proceedings, the petitioner's lawyer argued that those left out of the final NRC are in a state of uncertainty as the legal appeal process has yet to be activated.
"While there is a provision for appeals for those excluded from the NRC, no action has been taken thus far. The affected individuals continue to endure hardships due to the lack of an initiated appeal process," the counsel stated in court.
In response to these arguments, the bench issued notices to the Central Government, the Assam administration, and the State NRC Coordinator's office, linking this case with another pending petition that addresses similar concerns.
The petition requests that authorities promptly start the appeal process for all individuals excluded from the final NRC, allowing them to contest their exclusion before the appropriate appellate body.
Additionally, the petitioner has requested that the authorities issue National Identity Cards to all individuals whose names were included in the final NRC, as stipulated by Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, in conjunction with Rule 13 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
The final updated NRC for Assam, which aimed to identify legitimate Indian citizens in the state, was released on August 31, 2019, following a process overseen by the Supreme Court.
Official statistics indicate that 3,30,27,661 applicants sought inclusion in the NRC. Out of these, 3,11,21,004 individuals were included in the final list, while 19,06,657 applicants were excluded.
The Supreme Court is set to hear this matter along with the related petition once the respondents have submitted their replies.
Previously, Hitesh Dev Sarma, the former Assam NRC State Coordinator, wrote to the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, requesting that the publication of Census data for Assam be postponed until the NRC undergoes re-verification.
In his correspondence, Sarma asserted that the supplementary list from the 2019 NRC contained numerous inaccuracies, claiming that many ineligible individuals were included while a significant number of indigenous people were omitted.
He mentioned that he had alerted the authorities about these issues and filed a writ petition with the Supreme Court, seeking a comprehensive re-verification of the NRC.