'India Cannot Be The Refugee Capital Of World', Centre Seeks Re-verification of Assam NRC Inclusions; Matter Posted To July 23

The Centre and Assam Government on Friday requested the Supreme Court to extend the July 31 deadline for finalization of National Register of Citizens for Assam.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for both the governments, submitted before the bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman that there have been a lot of wrongful inclusions and exclusions. A sample re-verification of at least 20% of the inclusions of persons residing in Assam districts bordering Bangladesh is required, submitted the Solicitor General.

"Wrongful inclusions are manifold in the districts bordering Bangladesh", he said.

The Solicitor General asserted that "India cannot be the refugee capital of the world".

However, the NRC State Coordinator Prateek Haleja submitted that around 80 lakh people were subjected to re-verification, amounting to nearly 27% of the claims. In this backdrop, the bench asked the Solicitor General if further re-verification was required. The matter was adjourned to July 23 for the Solicitor General to reply to the report of the NRC Coordinator.

The NRC Coordinator also pointed out that the NRC process has hit a roadblock in view of the recent floods in Assam, and requested for extension on this ground as well.