The Centre has told the Supreme Court that rejection slips have not yet been issued to around 19 lakh people excluded from Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC), nearly seven years after the final list was published.
In an affidavit before the Supreme Court, the Registrar General of India (RGI) said the process could not begin because the final NRC has not yet been formally notified.
The RGI said the state NRC coordinator was still working on a “security regime” for preserving the NRC data. The data has not yet been handed over to the RGI, which can formally notify the final NRC only after receiving 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,” the affidavit said.
It further stated that the process of issuing rejection slips “has not been started yet” by the state NRC coordinator.
19.07 Lakh People Excluded From Final NRC
The final NRC was published on August 31, 2019. It included around 3.11 crore applicants, while 19.07 lakh people were excluded.
The rejection slips are important because they are meant to inform excluded applicants of the reasons for their exclusion and allow them to challenge the decision before Foreigners Tribunals.
The Supreme Court had earlier directed the state NRC coordinator to develop a mechanism for issuing the slips.
However, in October 2020, the state NRC coordinator informed the RGI that the slips could be issued only after the final NRC was formally notified by the Registrar General.
That notification has still not taken place.
Supreme Court Defers Hearing
The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the matter to November 6 after the Assam government sought additional time to file its response.
The case was being heard by a bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe.
The petitions were filed by the Assam State Jamiat Ulama, All Assam Minority Students Union, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and others. They seek rejection slips for people excluded from the NRC and NRC cards for those whose names were included in the final list.
The absence of rejection slips has left excluded applicants without the document envisaged for pursuing their legal remedy before Foreigners Tribunals.
Security of NRC Data Remains Pending
The delay is also linked to the Supreme Court’s earlier directions concerning the protection of NRC data.
The court had directed that the data be protected through a security regime and that information relating to inclusions and exclusions be shared with the state government, Centre and RGI only after appropriate safeguards were put in place.
The latest affidavit indicates that the security regime is still being prepared.
The Assam NRC process began following the 1985 Assam Accord, with applicants required to establish links to records dating to March 24, 1971. More than 6.8 million applications covering around 3.3 crore people were submitted during the exercise.
The draft NRC published in July 2018 had excluded around 40 lakh people. After claims and objections were considered, the final list was published in August 2019.
The Centre has also informed the Supreme Court that the issue of issuing NRC cards to those included in the final list is pending in separate proceedings.
A separate petition filed by former Assam NRC coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma, seeking comprehensive and time-bound re-verification of the NRC lists, is also pending before the Supreme Court.
