GUWAHATI: Opposition Congress in Assam said the directive issued by the National Register of Citizens (NRC) state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma to all district magistrates (DMs) to prepare a list containing the names of people wrongfully included for deletion was tantamount to contempt of the Supreme Court.
Congress MLA and leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Debabrata Saikia on Friday said the NRC authorities had not obtained permission from the SC to issue the directive. The NRC of 1951 was updated under the direct monitoring of the apex court.
“An earnest desire of the people of Assam was fulfilled when the NRC was updated under the supervision of the Supreme Court and, as such, both the Central and state governments share a responsibility towards the NRC. However, news has been published that the incumbent NRC State Coordinator has instructed various district magistrates to prepare a list of ‘D (doubtful) voters’, persons facing trial in foreigners’ tribunals, children younger than 14 years who have one parent of dubious nationality, and the like...
“Such a directive is tantamount to contempt of the Supreme Court because the NRC state coordinator has not taken the court’s leave to issue the directive. The apex court has not passed any order regarding omission or inclusion of fresh names in the final NRC,” Saikia said.
He urged the state government to expeditiously launch the process of the final NRC appeals which was supposed to start within 120 days of the publication of the document but remained on hold for over one year.
“Emphasis should be laid on the inclusion of the names of local inhabitants whose names did not appear in the NRC because they never applied for enrolment,” he said.
The NRC state coordinator had on Tuesday written to all DMs stating that as per the reports that he had received from them, some names of ineligible persons made it to the NRC. He asked them to submit the list of such persons along with “speaking orders” justifying reasons for each case for deletion of such names.
Over 19 lakh people were left out of the final NRC published on August 31 last year. Those who missed the NRC bus can challenge exclusion at the foreigners’ tribunals. The process is yet to begin.