Supreme Court extends Assam NRC deadline to August 31, rejects pleas for 20 per cent sample re-verification

Supreme Court on Tuesday extended deline for publication of final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam by a month to August 31 while rejecting pleas seeking permission for 20 per cent sample re-verification.

Centre and Assam government sought permission for sample re-verification to find out wrongful inclusions and exclusions of persons in NRC.

order was passed by a bench, comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman, which perused reports filed by Assam NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela.

Centre and Assam government stands were vanced by Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, respectively. 

Both governments h on July 19 told top court that "India cant be refugee capital of world" and sought extension of its deline of July 31 to complete Assam NRC.

y sought directions to conduct sample reverification to quell a growing perception that many illegal immigrants may have infiltrated NRC especially in districts bordering Banglesh.

court h earlier reiterated that deline would t be extended.

Both governments told apex court that several lakh people have been wrongfully included in NRC, specially in districts bordering Banglesh due to involvement of local officers in massive exercise.

RE | Mamata Banerjee Takes Delhi By Storm Over Assam NRC And 2019 Elections: Here's Every Meeting She Held And What She Said

y moved apex court on July 17 seeking a direction for 20 percent sample re-verification of names included in final NRC draft in districts of Assam bordering Banglesh and 10 percent sample re-verification of names included in final draft in remaining districts.

Centre's plea also sought a direction that such re-verification exercise be conducted by Class I officers of state government from or districts who have kwledge and experience of handling process of enquiry/investigation.

pleas of both governments also sought a direction to fix venue of sample re-verification at a place which was t in vicinity of initial NRC verification to rule out possibility of local influences, bias and threat.

y claimed that names of Indian citizens were excluded and illegal Bangleshi migrants were included in draft.

y also referred to apex court's 2018 order by which it h said it could consider a re-verification of 10 percent of people who were included in draft NRC.

top court h termed issue as "human problem with great magnitude" and asked state NRC coordinator to submit a report in a sealed cover on ramification of allowing claimants to file new sets of legacy documents.

first draft of NRC for Assam was published on intervening night of December 31, 2017 and January 1, 2018 in accordance with top court's direction. Names of 1.9 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated n.

Assam, which h faced influx of people from Banglesh since early 20th century, is only state having an NRC which was first prepared in 1951. 

RE | Rahul Gandhi Concedes That Manmohan Singh Ordered Assam NRC Updation But Slams Modi Government's Implementation