India cannot be the refugee capital of world: Centre tells SC over Assam NRC

NEW DELHI: India cannot be the refugee capital of the world, the Centre told the Supreme Court Friday, while requesting for an extension of deadline till July 31 for final National Register of Citizens (NRC). 

Solicitor General (SG) and senior Supreme Court lawyer Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Centre and Assam government, told the top court that lakhs of people had been wrongly included in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. 

“There is a growing perception that lakhs of illegal migrants have been included in the NRC list in alleged collusion with local NRC officials in the state of Assam. Illegal immigrants have to be dealt severely. India cannot be the refugee capital of the world," Mehta told SC.

The next hearing on the matter is on July 23.

The NRC in Assam is being updated under the monitoring of the Supreme Court and the final list is scheduled to be released on July 31.

The Assam government had published the draft NRC published on July 30, 2018, which included the names of 2.9 crore of the state`s total 3.29 crore people, but excluded the names of over 40 lakh people due to some discrepancies. A massive controversy arose over the exclusion of 40 lakh people from the draft NRC.

On June 26, the state published an additional draft exclusion list of the NRC comprising the names of 102,462 persons. These people were initially included in the draft NRC published but subsequently found ineligible due to different reasons.