SC bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi declined Centre’s request for a copy of the final report of NRC coordinator, may expand list of documents to prove claims

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday (September 5), deferred till further orders the commencement of the process of receiving claims and objections for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Fali Nariman order came after it examined the report of NRC coordinator Pratik Hajela. The NRC coordinator’s report states that 10 out of 15 identity documents provided in List A can be relied upon by a claimant for staking a claim in the state’s list of citizens.

The bench asked Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, and other stakeholders to file their response on the report of the NRC coordinator within two weeks.

During the course of the proceedings on Wednesday, Justice Gogoi said: “We are in agreement with one suggestion of Mr. Hajela that in addition to what was initially furnished by the applicant, if they have not succeeded in proving their claim on the basis of those documents, any one of the 10 documents set out in the report, of the 15 stipulated in List A, shall be permitted at the stage of addressing the claims and objections.”

Although the qualified its remarks by stating that these 10 documents can be furnished to stake claim for inclusion in the NRC, a final order on the matter will be granted after examining the submissions of all stakeholders. The bench added that the authenticity of these 10 documents will, however, need to be certified by the relevant issuing authority.

While posting the matter for further hearing on September 19, the bench declined Attorney General KK Venugopal’s request to share a copy of the final draft report of the NRC coordinator with the Centre, noting that it was of the view that “what has been set out in the aforesaid order should be sufficient for the Union of India and other stakeholders to indicate their opinion on the matter”.

Earlier on August 28, the apex court had said that it could consider a re-verification of 10 per cent of the people who were recently included in Assam’s draft NRC, an exercise that could be carried out by an independent team.

The top court had termed the issue as “human problem with great magnitude” and had asked the state NRC coordinator to submit a report in a sealed cover on the ramification of allowing the claimants to file new sets of legacy documents. The final draft NRC list was published on July 30 in which names of 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore people were included. The names of 40,70,707 people did not figure in the list. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold.

On July 31, the apex court had made it clear that there will be no coercive action by the authorities against over 40 lakh people, whose names did not figure in the NRC while observing that it was merely a draft. On August 14, the Centre had told the apex court that distinct IDs will be created by collecting biometric details of 40 lakh people filing claims and objections with respect to the NRC.

The first draft of the NRC for Assam was published on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 in accordance with the top court’s direction. Names of 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated then. Assam, which had faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC which was first prepared in 1951.

— India Legal Bureau, with inputs from PTI