NEW DELHI: The Assam government on Monday mentioned before the Supreme Court to extend the deadline for filing claims for inclusion in the draft National Register of Citizen (NRC). However, a bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, refused to hear it urgently but said that it will consider the plea. The deadline for filing claims and objections is December 15.
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Assam’s Principal Secretary home L S Changsan said, “SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) was finalised on November 1, so it’s only after that people started collecting their documents to stake a claim and it takes time to get the documents. Also, the state and government officials were busy with panchayat polls. It also took time to send the revised instructions to the NSKs (NRC Seva Kendras). All these factors were taken into consideration by the government before approaching the court.”
Nearly 40 lakh people were left out of the final draft.