NEW DELHI, Oct 17 - Months after publication of the final list, the Supreme Court is taking up the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue tomorrow to consider the plea of Assam Public Works (APW).
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi will consider the plea for 100 per cent reverification of the NRC data and appointment of a judicial commission to detect anomalies committed during the entire NRC exercise.
�We have demanded 100 per cent reverification of the final draft NRC by an independent agency,� APW president Aabhijit Sharma said. �We have also sought appointment of a judicial commission to detect anomalies committed during the entire process of update of NRC,� he added.
Meanwhile, Sharma told this newspaper that they are not going to attend tomorrow�s hearing. However, he didn�t cite any reason for it.
In its affidavit, the APW has said that the Supreme Court had asked the State Coordinator to submit a report for reverification and possible time frame when such an exercise can begin if ordered by the court and the time frame within which the same could be completed.
�But to our utter surprise, the State Coordinator informed the court through his submission on July 18 this year that he has done an incidental and automatic reverification of 27 per cent during the disposal of claims and objections, and there is no need of further verification,� the APW said.
�By doing so, the State Coordinator misguided the court. Because, the State Coordinator never submitted any timeline for 10 per cent sample reverification before the court and on the other hand, this court never passed any order for 10 per cent reverification of NRC,� it said.
Regarding 27 per cent �reverification� purportedly done by the State Coordinator, the APW claimed that it was only a consequential verification conducted during disposal of claims and objections and not a reverification of the draft NRC at all. The NRC Coordinator did disclose the result of such 27 per cent reverification and nobody, including the petitioner, was aware about such reverification, it said.
The APW claimed that lots of anomalies have come to light before and after publication of the final draft list, particularity after publication of the supplementary inclusion and exclusion list on August 31. A large number of names of indigenous people of the State did not find place in the final NRC for the reasons best known to the NRC authority.
The APW further claimed that names of declared foreigners were in the final NRC.
Considering large scale anomalies that have surfaced in the entire NRC update process that would change the demography of Assam whereby the indigenous people would become minority in their own homeland, a 100 per cent reverification is required to be ordered and appointment of a judicial commission is required to probe the matter, the APW said.
The final NRC was published on August 31 excluding names of 19,06,657 persons who had applied for inclusion of their names in the citizenship document. The process of NRC update in Assam is governed by Rule 4A and the corresponding Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. These rules have been framed as per the cut-off date of March 24 (midnight), 1971 decided as per the Assam Accord.
The process of receipt of NRC application forms started in May-end, 2015 and it concluded on August 31, 2015. A total of 3,30,27,661 members applied through 68,37,660 applications, and the particulars submitted by the applicants were taken up for scrutiny to determine eligibility of their inclusion in the NRC.
