The Supreme Court on Wednesdayday extended the deadline for filing claims and objections to the draft citizens’ register in Assam.
This is for the second time the apex court has extended the deadline from December 15 to December 31. Earlier, the deadline was shifted from November 25 to December 15.
Earlier this month, a retired school teacher allegedly committed suicide apparently as his name did not appear in the updated draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
In a note allegedly left behind, 74-year-old Das stated that he was taking the extreme step to “escape the humiliation of being marked as a foreigner after the NRC process,” the family members said.
The process of filing claims and objections to the draft citizens’ register in Assam began in September to decide the fate of 40 lakh people whose names were left out of it.
“Out of 40 lakh people who were left out of the final draft NRC, 14.8 lakh people have filed claims,” NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela told Supreme Court.
During the last hearing, the top court also permitted five documents excluded from being relied upon to seek inclusion. The documents are :
- NRC 1951, citizenship certificate issued till 1966,
- Ration card,
- Refugee registration certificate,
- Voters list issued till March 24, 1971.
The NRC is being updated with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for legitimate claim to Indian citizenship in Assam.
The draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on July 30 and included the names of 2.9 crore people out of the total applications of 3.29 crore.
The claims-and-objections forms are available across 2,500 ‘seva kendras’, where people can file their appeal in their respective areas.
People can file corrections to their names that are in the draft and also raise objections against suspected foreigners.
