NEW DELHI: In a big relief to people who have, so far, not submitted their documents for inclusion of their names in the National Register of Citizens for Assam after being left out in the draft NRC, the Supreme Court on Wednesday extended its date from December 15 to December 31.
"Out of 40 lakh people who were left out of the final draft NRC, 14.8 lakh people have filed claims," NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela told the apex court.
The top court extended the date for commencement of verification to February 15. Earlier, the last date for commencement of verification was February 1.
Earlier, the Assam government had sought the extension of one-month deadline for filing claims for inclusion in the NRC draft from the Supreme Court.
NRC is a register containing names of Indian citizens, which was prepared for the only time in 1951 and is being updated for only Assam to weed out the illegal immigrants.
NRC is a list of Indian citizens in Assam. It was prepared in 1951, after a population census that year. A special bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman considered the plea of Assam government that the deadline of December 15, fixed for filing claims and objections by those left out in the draft NRC, be extended by till January 15 next year.
(With ANI inputs)