Assam NRC: Supreme Court to resume hearing on inclusion of names in draft list

The to court bench had sought a detailed response from Assam NRC coordinator regarding the inclusion of names in the draft list.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday resume hearing on the inclusion of names in the controversial Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft list.

The matter will be taken up by an apex court bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman.

The bench had last week deferred the hearing in the case till September 19 (Wednesday).

During the hearing last week, the bench had sought a detailed report from the Assam NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela regarding why those who want to be included in the NRC draft list were asked to provide fresh additional documents. 

The bench sought responses from Hajela and the Centre on the issue of inclusion and omissions of names in the NRC draft list.

Earlier, the process of filing claims and objections was deferred to September first week. The court had asked for a recommendation report from Hajela regarding the feasibility of the proposed process.

The Centre, which is exploring to give second chance to nearly 40 lakh aggrieved people whose names have not been included in the list, had asked the NRC coordinator if the process was feasible.

The top court had earlier directed the Assam NRC coordinator to provide it with the data of district-wise percentage of the population excluded from the NRC draft in the state. 

The apex court had sought the response of all the stakeholders including the All Assam Students Union and the All Assam Minority Students Union on the Centre's Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in this regard.

Further directing Hajela to make the draft NRC public, the court said that claims and objections would be accepted from August 30.

The top court had on August 7 held Hajela and Registrar General of India guilty of contempt of court, reprimanding them for making statements to media on the NRC Assam modalities when nothing had been informed to the court.

The second draft, which was released on July 30, included names of 2.89 crore people, out of 3.29 crore applicants in Assam, leaving out names of nearly 40 lakh people.

On July 31, the court, while the hearing case, observed that the process of filing objections by those whose names were not listed in the NRC draft should be fair, and directed the Centre to prepare a SOP for claims and objections.

The NRC draft features names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens residing in the state of Assam before March 25, 1971.

(With Agency Inputs)