SC Extends Deadline For Publication Of Assam NRC To 31 August; Rejects Plea For Re-Verification Of Inclusions

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (23 July) extended the deadline for publication of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam from 31 July to 31 August, reports Times of India.

The apex court bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice RF Nariman, however, rejected the joint plea of the Centre and the Assam government to re-verfiy 20 per cent of draft NRC data to remove large scale inclusion of illegal migrants.

Last week, appearing for both the Centre and the Assam government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had urged the apex court to extend the deadline for finalisation of NRC. He also submitted that a sample re-verification of at least 20 per cent of the inclusions of persons residing in Assam districts bordering Bangladesh was necessary, LiveLaw has reported.

However, the NRC state co-ordinator Prateek Haleja had submitted that around 80 lakh people were subjected to re-verification, accounting for nearly 27 per cent of the claims.

On Tuesday (23 July), Haleja reiterated that re-verification was not necessary. Taking this into account, the SC declined the request made by Centre and Assam.