The Supreme Court today officially declared that the government cannot initiate any ‘action’ against the people of Assam who have been left out of the draft Assam Nationaal Register of Citizens (NRC). After the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was released on Monday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi had dubbed the execution of such an act as ‘tardy for such a critical action’
With BJP chief Amit Shah accusing the Congress of ‘not showing courage to identify illegal migrants’ in Assam. The opposition today asked the government to ‘tread cautiously’ and ‘not play politics on the issue of NRC’.
“Everybody should get a fair opportunity considering the complexities and numbers, etc, involved. You (government) place it before us. If it is fair, we will approve. If not, we will disapprove. If there is anything missing, we will fill it,” Justice Gogoi stated addressing the issue.
The ones whose names haven’t featured in the list will have to file claims between August 30 and September 28. The next NCR update is supposed to take place on 31st December of this year. The people whose names haven’t been included will enjoy all the fundamental rights and privileges till the next NRC update.
Registrar General of India stated that “This is a draft, we will wait for the final one. Till then, there will be status quo on the rights and privileges (of those not included in NRC). Adding that, “This is a subject matter of the Election Commission and I am not the competent authority to comment on it”
The names of 40.07 lakh applicants were not included in the document, which will be considered proof of possessing an Assamese identity. The first draft contained only 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants who were incorporated. Assam had faced an influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, thus leading the government to undertake such measures.