GUWAHATI, Sept 26 - Assam Government is ready for setting up of 200 new Tribunals under the provisions of the Foreigners� Act as soon as the office of the State National Register of Citizens (NRC) Coordinator starts issuing the rejection slips to the persons left out of the NRC.
Names of more than 19 lakh applicants were not included in the final NRC published on August 31 and apprehending that majority of them would file appeals in the Foreigners� Tribunals, the Government has initiated steps to set up 200 new Tribunals.
Official sources told The Assam Tribune that the Gauhati High Court has already selected the members for the new Tribunals and appointment letters have been issued. The new members have started joining and so far, they have been attached in the existing Tribunals so that they can gather experience about functioning of the Tribunals. The selection process for 1800 other employees of the new Tribunals is also over.
Sources said the Government of India would bear the expenses of the new Tribunals, which would start functioning from hired buildings. However, sources said that till date, the Government is not aware of the number of persons left out of the NRC from different districts. �As the Government is not aware how many persons are left out from which district, it is difficult to plan the setting up of the new Tribunals properly. That is why, the Government is making arrangements with the tentative information available,� sources added.
Sources said that the persons left out of the NRC would require the certified copies of the rejection slips or orders with details of the causes of rejection of their applications to file appeals before the Tribunals.
The Office of the State NRC Coordinator is working on preparation of such rejection slips, but it may take some time as �there is need for going through quality checks� before issuing such slips to the people. �If any person gets wrong rejection slip, it will lead to confusion. That is why, proper quality checks is required before issuing such slips,� sources added. The office of the NRC Coordinator will formally announce the date on which the process of issuing the rejection slips will start.
As per the revised rules, a person left out of the NRC will be able to file appeals before the Tribunals within 120 days and official sources clarified that the days would not be counted from the date of publication of the NRC but from the day the rejection slips are issued.
