Assam NRC:SC Directs All Stakeholders To File Their Stand On NRC Coordinator's Objection To Five Documents For Claims And Objection by October 30

The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Nariman on Tuesday invited all stakeholders to offer their opinion on the stand adopted by Mr. Prateek Hajela, the State Coordinator for the Assam NRC, in regarding as inexpedient the allowing of claims for inclusion in the NRC to be filed on the basis of five specific documents.

At the previous hearing on September 19, the court had sought the views of Mr. Hajela on the permissibility of introduction of any one or more of the following five documents for claimants to rely on in the filing of claims and objections, at this stage of the updation process-

(i) Names in NRC, 1951;
(ii) Names in Electoral Roll upto 24th March, 1971;
(iii) Citizenship Certificate; and Refugee Registration Certificate;
(iv) Certified copies of pre-1971 Electoral Roll, particularly, those issued from the State of Tripura; and
(v) Ration Card

The bench identified the following as stake-holders, requiring a copy of Mr. Hajela’s report, containing the reasons for not deeming the aforesaid documents as eligible proof, to be served on them-
1. State of Assam
2. Union of India
3. All Assam Students Union
4. All Assam Minorities Students’ Union
5. Jamait Ulama -i-Hind
6. Assam Public Works
7. Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha
8. National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Progressive)
9. Indigenous Tribal Peoples Federation
10. Joint Action Committee for Bangali Refugees

The bench noted that in order to be able to respond to Mr. Hajela’s stand, a deep insight into the mechanism of the manual family tree as well as the computer family tree, which is the basic exercise that was undertaken before preparation of the final draft NRC, would be required.

Accordingly, the court required him to prepare a power- point presentation of the manner in which he had proceeded in preparation of the manual and the computer family tree for the purposes of deciding on the inclusion of names in the draft NRC.

The power-point presentation will be given to the officials of the Government of Assam and the Union of India in the presence of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta or his authorised representative as may be and also in the presence of one representative of all the other stake-holders who agree to be represented by Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal.

The stakeholders are directed to submit their objections by October 30, the matter next scheduled to be heard on November 1.