Supreme Court seeks Centre, Assam govt's replies on delay in issuing NRC Identity Cards
Petitioners told the SC that six years after the publication of Assam’s NRC list, authorities have neither issued identity cards to over 3.11 crore included citizens
The Supreme Court on Monday (August 10) asked the Centre and the Assam government to submit replies in response to a batch of petitions regarding the issuance of National Register of Citizens (NRC) Identity Cards to individuals included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list, which was published in August 2019.
What petitioners argued
The petitions respectively filed by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, the All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU), and the Assam Sankhyalaghu Sangram Parishad, mainly argued that even though the NRC list was published in 2019 the concerned authorities have failed to issue the National Identity Cards to the 3.11 crore citizens who were included in the list as per under Rule 13 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
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They further stated that the concerned authorities have also failed to issue rejection slips and initiate appeals as per Paragraph 8 of the Schedule to Rule 4A of the said Rules for the 19 lakh persons excluded from the NRC, reported Live Law.
Petitioners flag delays
The two factors, argued the petitioners, have led to the final NRC list being an incomplete exercise — unconstitutional, arbitrary, and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, reported Live Law.
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During the hearing before the bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, stated that despite notice being issued, the Centre and the State are yet to file their response.
Sibal also sought permission to place on record a rejoinder to the response submitted by the Registrar General of India.
Cases tagged together
Senior advocate Manish Goswami mentioned an interlocutory application connected to a petition instituted by former NRC Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma.
Goswami submitted that the reliefs claimed in Sarma's petition run contrary to those sought in the present batch of matters. He accordingly requested that the case be listed along with the other pending petitions.
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Sarma has sought re-certification and re-verification of the NRC, contending that the final list suffers from multiple inaccuracies.
After hearing Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, for a short while, the Bench directed that Sarma's petition be tagged with the connected matters.