26-Jun-2019: Assam NRC additional draft exclusion list

Over one lakh people who were part of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) published in July last year but were found ineligible thereafter — they have been named in the Additional Draft Exclusion List published recently.

In this list, 1,02,462 persons are included — implying that they are out of the draft NRC. These people were among the 2.89 crore people included in the draft NRC published in July last year.

These over one lakh people were found ineligible during re-verification for any one of the following reasons: Persons who were found to be DF (Declared Foreigner) or DV (Doubtful Voter) or PFT (persons with cases Pending at Foreigners Tribunals) or their descendants, as applicable, discovered after publication of draft NRC, persons who were found to be ineligible while appearing as witness in hearings held for disposal of Claims & Objections, persons who were found to be ineligible during the process of verification carried out by the Local Registrars of Citizens Registration (LRCRs) after publication of draft NRC.

People in the draft list will be informed individually through Letters of Information (LOI) to be delivered at their residential addresses along with the reason for exclusion. Such persons will have the opportunity to file their Claims which will be disposed through a hearing by a Disposing Officer. The submission of Claim and it’s disposal by the Disposing Officer through a hearing will happen together.

LOI will mention the details of the venue of claim submission cum hearing. The hearings will start from 5th July 2019 onwards. The date of hearings will also be available online in the NRC website from June 29 onwards. All such Claims will be disposed thereafter and results of such persons will be declared in the Final NRC on July 31 2019.

The preparation of the draft exclusion list of the NRC was approved by the SC under the under Clause 5 of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. The provision of suo moto verification is mentioned in Section 4 (3) of the Schedule of the above mentioned Citizenship Rules, 2003, which says that the local registrar of citizen registration (LRCR) may at any time before the final publication of NRC in the state of Assam may verify names already in the final draft NRC if considered necessary.

The NRC is basically a list of Indian citizens of Assam. NRC prepared in 1951 is being updated to include the names of people or their descendants who appear in the 1951 NRC, in any of the Electoral Rolls, or in any one of the other admissible documents issued up to the midnight of March 24, 1971. Those excluded from final draft could appeal for their inclusion in the final NRC through the ‘claims’ round. Under ‘objections’, people could raise objections to the inclusion of a person’s name in the draft NRC.

In last year’s draft, published on July 30 last year, 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were included, leaving out over 40 lakh people. Those excluded were given a chance to appeal in the ‘claims and objections’ round. Nearly 36 lakh people filed their ‘claims’ while ‘objections’ were received against a little over two lakh people among the 2.89 crore people included in the final draft. The date of the publication of the final NRC has been set by the SC as July 31.

18-May-2019: Decision of foreigners tribunal will prevail over NRC order

Supreme Court has held that a tribunal's order declaring a person as an illegal foreigner will be binding and prevail over the government decision to exclude or include the name from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna distinguished between the decisions of NRC and of foreigners tribunals and said that the latter's order being the quasi-judicial one will prevail.

The persons whose names are not included in the NRC in Assam can produce documents including the ones related to the family tree and seek review of the tribunal's decision.

The court rejected the plea made by petitioners including Abdul Kuddus contending whether a judicial determination of a person being foreigner will stand superseded if his or her name was included or excluded in the NRC in Assam.

13-Mar-2019: Exclusion from NRC list will not affect voting rights, says Election Commission

The Election Commission assured the Supreme Court that the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), published on July 30 last year, will not be the basis to deny residents voting rights.

The first draft of the NRC, aimed at identifying illegal immigrants in Assam, did not include names of around 40 lakh people out of a total of 3.29 crore applicants.

27-Dec-2018: Centre extends deadline to update NRC

The Centre has given an extension of six months to complete the ongoing exercise for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam by June 30.

In a notification, the Registrar General of India Sailesh said the decision was taken as the exercise to enumerate citizens in the NRC, a list of Assam’s residents, could not be completed within the specified date of December 31, 2018.

On December 6, 2013, the government issued the first notification setting a deadline of three years for completion of the entire NRC process. Since then, five extensions have been given by the government. The draft NRC was published on July 30 and included the names of 2.9 crore people of the total 3.29 crore applicants.

8-Oct-2018: Supreme Court tags Tripura NRC plea with Assam case

The Supreme Court issued notice to the government on a public interest litigation to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Tripura, as is being done in Assam, in order to detect and deport the “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh.

A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi directed the court registry to tag the petition, filed by the Tripura People’s Front and some others, along with petitions in the Assam NRC case. The petition asked the Supreme Court to direct the authorities to update the NRC with respect to Tripura in terms of Rules 3 and 4 of The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 by taking July 19, 1948 as the cut-off date as provided for in Article 6 of the Constitution.

External aggression: The petition contended the “influx” of illegal immigrants into Tripura amounted to ‘external aggression’ under Article 355 of the Constitution. The Union is bound to protect the State from this. The presence of illegal immigrants violates the political rights of the citizens of Tripura.

Demographic changes: Uncontrolled influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to Tripura has caused huge demographic changes in Tripura. Tripura was a predominantly tribal State, but now it has become a non-tribal State. Indigenous people who were once the majority have now become a minority in their own land.

The indigenous people/original inhabitants of Tripura are called as ‘Boroks (Twiprasa).’ It is a known position that Tripura and Assam have faced the major brunt of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. The exercise in Assam was necessitated due to the persistent illegal influx problem that has plagued the State for over three decades now.

1-Jan-2018: 1st draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam

The first draft of the much awaited National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam has listed 19 million people out of the 32.9 million applicants as legal Indian citizens in a massive exercise aimed at identifying illegal immigrants in the state that borders Bangladesh.

People flocked to Seva Kendras across Assam in large numbers since morning to check whether they figured in the list containing the names of those who were recognised as citizens of India in the Supreme Court-monitored exercise, hours after the document was released at midnight. A top official said there is no need for anyone to panic and that other names are in various stages of verification.

This(NRC) is unprecedented. There is no example in this country. I doubt if there is any other country in the world having such a complex methodology to determine the citizenship of the people.

The RGI said the ground work for the mammoth exercise began in December 2013 and so far 40 hearings have taken place in the Supreme Court during the last three years.

The NRC was last updated in Assam way back in 1951. Then, it had recorded 80 lakh citizens in the State. Since then, the process of identification of illegal immigrants in Assam has been debated and become a contentious issue in the states politics.

The exercise got a major push after the BJP came to power in May 2016 with "illegal immigration from Bangladesh" as a poll plank. India and Bangladesh share 4,096-km-long border, of which 262 km falls in Assam.

A six-year agitation demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was launched by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) in 1979. It culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985 in the presence of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Why is NRC being updated in Assam?

Officially, the NRC process will address the issue of illegal migrants, specifically from Bangladesh. The National Register of Citizens was first published in 1951 to record citizens, their houses and holdings. Updating the NRC to root out foreigners was a demand during the Assam Agitation (1979-1985).

Why is March 24, 1971 the cut-off date?

There have been several waves of migration to Assam from Bangladesh, but the biggest was in March 1971 when the Pakistan army crackdown forced many to flee to India. The Assam Accord of 1985 that ended the six-year anti-foreigners’ agitation decided upon the midnight of March 24, 1971 as the cutoff date.

Who is a citizen in Assam?

The Citizenship Act of 1955 was amended after the Assam Accord for all Indian-origin people who came from Bangladesh before January 1, 1966 to be deemed as citizens. Those who came between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971 were eligible for citizenship after registering and living in the State for 10 years while those entering after March 25, 1971, were to be deported.

Assam NRC: The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a list that contains names of Indian citizens of Assam. It was last prepared after Census in 1951. Assam, which had faced an influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC.

The Assam government on July 30, 2018 released the second and final draft of the state’s National Register of Citizens (NRC). The draft includes the names of Indian citizens who have been residing in Assam before March 25, 1971.