From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: : The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended till December 31 the deadline for filing claims and objection by around 40 lakh people who were left out of Assam’s draft National Register of Citizens (NRC).
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said the issuance of notice to those who filed claims and objections will commence on February 1, 2019, and the verification would be done from February 15.
“The last date for submission of claims and objections fixed on December 15, 2018, is extended to December 31, 2018. Consequently, the process of commencement of verification scheduled earlier on February 1, 2019, is shifted to February 15, 2019,” the court said in its order.
Earlier, the apex court had fixed December 15 as the last date to submit claims and objections.
The Legal Advisor to Assam Chief Minister, Santanu Bharali informed that the State Government had earlier filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time frame for filing claims and objections for those applicants whose names were not included in the final draft NRC.
The Supreme Court in view of the petition extended the last date.
He also informed that the apex court had also allowed filing objections against wrongful inclusions in the draft NRC at the nodal offices of NRC located at district headquarters.
The court was told that so far, 289 objections have been filed against wrongful inclusion of names.
Moreover, the Supreme Court has also postponed the date for commencement of NRC verification process to February 15 from February 1, he said.
The court ordered the availability of the copies of the draft NRC at convenient locations, after an applicant said that there were fewer objections against the wrongful inclusions as they were not aware of the names included in the draft NRC.
The court on Wednesday made it clear that “the List B documents that are found to be legally valid be accepted regardless of the date of issuance of the same”.
The court ordered the acceptance of List B document without any cut-off date as senior counsel Kapil Sibal drew the attention of the court that List B documents that were issued post August 31, 2015 were not being entertained by the NRC authorities.
The NRC is being updated in Assam with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date. The final draft of the NRC was published July 30, 2018 where names of over 40 lakh applicants could not be included on various reasons. These applicants are now supposed file claims and objections for inclusion of their names in the final updated NRC. (With added inputs from IANS)