NEW DELHI, May 8 - The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of extending the July 31 deadline for publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justice RF Nariman gave a �free hand� to State NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela to deal with claims and objections of persons against wrong exclusion or inclusion of citizens in the NRC.
Hajela submitted before the bench that while the adjudication of objections against exclusion from the NRC has already commenced, claimants have failed to appear in most cases.
Hajela also informed the court that many persons, who had objected to inclusion of certain individuals in the draft NRC, are not coming forward before panels which are dealing with such complaints.
The CJI advised Hajela to �exercise your discretion and keep the law in mind,� adding that �whatever you want to do, publish final NRC by July 31. May be a day earlier, but not a day later.�
Observing that the law shall take its own course in respect of those who do not show up in support of their claims, the bench noted that fair discretion in accordance with the law may be applied in determining the fate of those conspicuous by their absence.
The State NRC Coordinator was also granted liberty to make a mention before the Registrar for an urgent hearing during the summer vacations should the need arise.
The next date of hearing has been fixed on July 10 2019.
The draft Assam NRC was published on July 30 last year in which names of 2.89 crore people of the 3.29 crore population were included.
