NEW DELHI, Sept 27 - The Election Commission (EC) is likely to allow voters left out of National register of Citizens (NRC) the right to vote till all the legal remedies are exhausted.
According to reports, the EC has taken a call on NRC and said that registered voters left out of NRC will not be marked as �D� voters.
The final NRC was released on August 31 with 19,06,657 of the total 3,30,27,661 applicants excluded and 3,11,22,004 included.
The EC had faced the question of whether those left out of the NRC should be marked �doubtful� and prevented from voting even if they were voters till now.
Reports said that the EC�s decision was mainly based on the Ministry of Home Affair�s clarification that the absence of names in the NRC does not amount to them being declared foreigners as they have a window to prove their citizenship before the Foreigners Tribunals.
Lakhs of people, whose names do not find place in the final NRC, will now exercise their franchise after the EC�s decision.
The move is significant as members of the ruling BJP as well as the Congress believe that the NRC is faulty and has left several genuine citizens out.
The number of �D voters� was officially revised to 181,619. As of June 2012, there were officially 157,465 �D voters� in Assam, whose credentials are under verification.
On January 6, 2014, the State government informed the Legislature that there were a total of 143,227 �D voters� in the State.
As per electoral laws, the name of a voter cannot be deleted without issuing a notice.
The process for updating NRC was started in Assam following a Supreme Court order in 2013 and since then, the apex court has been closely monitoring the entire process.
