2.77 lakh ineligible names may have been included in Assam NRC, HC told

The Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) authorities have informed the Gauhati High Court that they may have included up to 2.77 lakh “undeserving” names in the list due to poor quality check and control.

Assam NRC co-ordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma filed an affidavit to this effect in the high court following the verification of just 27% of the draft NRC. This means the remainder of the NRC could have many more ineligible names.

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“Considering the fact that 1,02,462 names were deleted through ‘incidental verification’ of 27% of the draft NRC, one definitely cannot ignore the remaining 73% unverified results where there may be 2.77 lakh undeserving names in the NRC going by the same arithmetic,” said the affidavit.

The affidavit further stated that “wrongful inclusions” were a result of absence of quality check in the original inhabitant marking and a lack of quality check in family tree cross-checking and matching.

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The High Court had asked for an affidavit from the NRC in response to a case filed by “declared foreigners” who had claimed that their names appear in the final Assam NRC released online in 2019. The final Assam NRC had found over 31.1 million people eligible to be included in the registry, marking 1.9 million people.

The list of “ineligible persons” included doubtful voters, declared foreigners, persons against whom cases are pending in foreigners’ tribunals, and their family members – they will be excluded from the updated NRC.

The Registrar General of India (RGI) is yet to notify Assam’s final NRC. The Supreme Court is monitoring the update process. The apex court had earlier rejected the Assam and the Central government’s plea to conduct 20 per cent sample re-verification. The BJP has already rejected the Assam NRC, terming it as “faulty”.