NRC in Assam: Final list not yet prepared, Coordinator tells Gauhati High Court

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Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) Coordinator Hitesh Sarma has informed the Gauhati High Court that the final NRC is “yet to be published” by the Registrar General of India (RGI), according to a report by The Indian Express. This is contrary to its earlier stated position.

According to a report, Sarma told the High Court in a December 3 affidavit that the RGI was silent on the publication of the “Final NRC” and also termed the list published on August 31, 2019, as “Supplementary NRC”. Sarma reportedly said the existing list included 4,700-odd ineligible names.

The register, published in August 2019 under the supervision of the Supreme Court, had excluded around 19 lakh people in Assam from around 3.3 crore applicants. It is estimated that around 5.5 lakh of them are Hindus and over 11 lakh are Muslims. The then coordinator Prateek Hajela had called it the “Final NRC”.

However, since then, the state government has called the list erroneous and blamed Hajela for what it called was a flawed citizenship register. Subsequently, Hajela was shifted out of the state by the apex court. The Assam government has sought re-verification of the names included and excluded from the register.

The process has not moved forward in Assam since then. The NRC authority has reportedly not issued rejection orders to those 19 lakh people. They are eligible to appeal against their exclusion in the Foreigners’ Tribunals only after they receive the rejection orders.

In the affidavit, Sarma reportedly said that all anomalies detected in the published register had been communicated to the RGI in February and that he had sought “necessary directions for corrective measures in the interest of an error free NRC which is of utmost importance” as it is “directly related to national security and integrity”.

The RGI has, however, not provided directions on the matter, Sarma told the court. “Rather instructions have been received for issue of rejection slips and winding up of the operation of updation of NRC. The Registrar General of India is also silent on final publication of the NRC for which it is the only authority to take action and till date the Final NRC is yet to be published by Registrar General of India as per Clause 7 of the rules under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003,” Sarma said in the affidavit.