NEW DELHI: Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has alleged that a new game to exclude Muslims from NRC in Assam has begun and has approached the Supreme Court against the controversial notification of a new state coordinator, Hitesh Dev Sarma, on Sunday.
The JUH alleged that the new state coordinator, Hitesh Dev Sarma, has issued a notification to all the District Registrars of Citizen Registration (DRSR) of the state on October 13, saying that “it has come to our notice that the names of many such illegal persons and their ancestors have included in NRC. Those who are either suspicious or de-voters or have been declared foreigners by the foreign tribunal, all such people should be removed from NRC because they are foreigners.”
The new cordinator had referred to Section 4 (3) of the Citizenship Act (Registration of Citizens and Issuance of National Identity Card) 2003, in which he said that before the publishing of the final list of NRC in Assam, the names of such people can be verified, while the reality is that after the publishing of the partial list of NRC on July 23, 2019, the Centre and Assam Government were seeking re-verification against people whose relatives are not included in the NRC.
But the JUH says that at that time the Supreme Court rejected their petitions, saying that there is no need for re-verification or NRC, the final list of NRC should be published by August 31, 2019.
Although the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind had filed an appeal in Supreme Court to keep D-Voter on hold, the state coordinator says that they cannot be put on hold, they are foreigners so their names should be removed from NRC.
JUH chief Arshad Madani has alleged that “this is the same Hitesh Dev Sarma who had made controversial statement regarding the Assam citizenship even before he became the state coordinator. Immediately after he became the state coordinator, Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind filed a petition in Supreme Court questioning his appointment. ”
“Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, Jamiat Ulama Assam and All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) have approached the court for challenging the latest order of the State Coordinator in Supreme Court today,” said advocate Fuzail Ayyubi
The people of Jamiat Ulama Assam are also providing legal aid to the people at the local level.
Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind is going to the Supreme Court with full preparation against it as well. Madani said that first of all, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind will take up the matter challenging the appointment of the new coordinator in the court, which has been pending since last January.
Madani said that the Assam citizenship case is being monitored by a monitoring bench of the Supreme Court and the status of the state coordinator is merely a mediator. In such a situation, the basic question arises, in the presence of the monitoring bench, in what capacity did the state coordinator issue such an order? Did they take the monitoring bench into confidence? If not, did they not exceed their authority by doing so?
Maulana Madani said that in principle, his order is a clear violation of the directive given by the Supreme Court from time to time. He explained that out of the 1.9 million people who have been left out of the NRC, according to our information, a large number of them are real citizens of Assam. They also have all the documents but still their names were not included in NRC.
In that case, the state coordinator should have ensured their access to the legal process.