Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Plea Alleging Harassment Of Minorities In Assam-NRC Process; Gives Liberty To Move HC

"Petitioner would be at liberty to approach the High Court for appropriate relief."

Previously, the Apex Court had deferred the hearing of the plea asking the petitioner to come back with more 'structured reliefs' as the prayers in the present petition are set out in a haphazard manner. On Friday, Advocate, Mr. Adeel Ahmed appearing on behalf of the petitioner apprised the Bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hima Kohli about the same and sought its permission to file an application for modifying the petition. The Bench asked him to go before the High Court, stating that the assistance of the judgment of the High Court would be beneficial in deciding the issues if the matter eventually comes up in appeal.

"Why don't you go to the High Court with all these reliefs. Let us have the benefit of the judgment of the High Court and then you can come here…In many of these issues like, burden of proof, nature of proof required, let's have some idea from the High Court."

Among other things, the petition seeks direction to authorities to not delete/exclude names from the 'final draft' of the NRC published on 31.08.2019; stop further identification of 'Doubtful' voters without proper verification; finalise the draft NRC only after providing opportunity to the person whose name are not there in the 2019 list to prefer appeal against the rejection of their applications.

In another set of prayers, the petition beseeches the Bench to amend the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Foreigners (Tribunals) Orders, 1964 by inserting certain safeguards. It further seeks review of the judgment of the Apex Court which had declared the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 as ultra vires. By way of the said order the Apex Court has also directed the concerned authorities to decide cases relating to citizenship of suspected foreigners under the Foreigners Act 1946, observing that external and internal disturbances have been caused in Assam by the unabated influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh. The petition claims that the said order has emboldened the authorities to level reckless allegations, arbitrarily refer cases without fair investigation, and facilitate arbitrary adjudication by the Foreigners Tribunals. The petition submits that the implication of the order is that the burden of proof to establish citizenship has shifted to the 'poor applicants' in absence of the safeguards laid down in the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983. On the last date of hearing, the Bench had made it abundantly clear that in exercise of jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, it would not be possible for it to review the said order.

The petition submits that the 2019 list has left out 19,06,657 applicants. The process of proving citizenship status is difficult and the difficulty increases manifold for married women trying to establish citizenship by proving their lineage. The petition also raises allegations of ethnic cleansing. It points out that after the conclusion of the Assam Legislative Assembly elections in 2021, the newly appointed Chief Minister, Dr. Himanta Biswas Sharma had announced that 20% of the NRC will be reviewed in the border areas and 10% in the other areas. The State Coordinator of the Assam NRC has also approached the Apex Court seeking re-verification of the draft NRC and the supplementary list of NRC under Clause 4(3) of Schedule of Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

The petition was filed through Advocate-on-Record, Mr. Adeel Ahmed.

[Case Status: Tarek Aktar Ansari v. UoI And Ors W.P.(C) No. 130/2022]

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