Assam draft NRC: SC gives green signal to file claims

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that the filing of claims and objections from 40 lakh persons who have been left out of the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft would begin on September 25.

The Supreme Court division bench, headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said the process of claims and objections will go on for a period of 60 days, till November 25.

The first draft of NRC for Assam, which was released in January, contained the name of 1.9 crore Assamese. The second and final draft, which was released in July, included names of 2.89 crore out of 3.29 crore applicants in Assam, leaving out names of nearly 40 lakh people.

NRC is a register containing names of Indian citizens, which was prepared for the only time in 1951 and is being updated for only Assam to weed out the illegal immigrants.

The five documents are names in NRC, 1951; names in an electoral roll up to March 24, 1971; citizenship certificate; refugee registration certificate; certified copies of the pre-1971 electoral roll, particularly, those issued from Tripura; and ration card.

With agency inputs