GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre, Assam government, Registrar General of India and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Monday on a PIL that sought directions to issue Aadhaar cards to 27.43 lakh people. They had made it to the supplementary list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Assam, published in August 2019.
A bench, comprising Justices UU Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and PS Narasimha, issued the notice after hearing the PIL filed by the Rajya Sabha member Sushmita Dev of the All India Trinamool Congress.
The petitioner’s counsel, senior advocate Bishwajit Deb submitted before the court that while the persons, whose names figure on the NRC first list published in December 2017, received their Aadhaar cards, those included in the supplementary list were denied the same.
Stating that the Aadhaar Act says each and every resident is eligible for an Aadhar card, he prayed before the court that the persons are issued Aadhar cards. He said denial of the same is tantamount to the denial of basic needs.
Deb told this newspaper that the court thereafter agreed to issue the notice. The matter will be heard again on May 17.
The persons, whose biometric details are locked despite their names being included in the NRC through the process of claims and objections, had filed applications for Aadhar enrollment but they were rejected by UIDAI.
The Assam government had written to the Centre twice requesting it to allow the authorities to access the biometric details of the people. It is agreed many of them, whose biometric details are blocked, are not getting the benefits of welfare schemes.
The NRC of 1951 was updated under the direct monitoring of the Supreme Court. Over 19 lakh of the 3.30 crore applicants were left out of the final list.