The Supreme Court on Thursday (August 23) ordered the sorting of all documents of migrants claiming citizenship in Assam. This has to be completed by December 31.

About 48 lakh panchayat documents had been rejected by the Gauhati High Court, potentially marking them as illegal immigrants not worthy of citizenship of India. The apex court has been moved in this regard.

On Thursday Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha is hearing the case. The appeal says that the high court decision has affected mainly women, who were displaced for resettlement after marriage.

The court directed the project coordinator present in court to start the segregation work in four weeks by examining all documents presented by the claimants and start the process of publishing draft national citizenship rolls by December 31.

Earlier this was a case of foreigners, but it was converted into a larger issue of all migrants by the high court.

—India Legal Bureau