SC mulls 10% test for citizen register

Assam government published the second and final draft of the updated NRC. The Supreme Court said  it could consider a re-verification of 10 per cent of the names included in the NRC. Source: ABP Live

TT, New Delhi: The Supreme Court said on Tuesday it could consider a re-verification of 10 per cent of the names included in Assam's draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) to satisfy itself that the exercise was error-free.

"We are of the view that the court should consider the necessity of carrying out the sample re-verification of at least 10 per cent of the names included in the final draft NRC," a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R.F. Nariman said. The re-verification could be conducted by a team from a neighbouring district, it added.

The bench asked the state coordinator for the NRC, Prateek Hajela, to get back with the possible time frame when such an exercise can begin if ordered by the court and the time frame within which it can be completed.

The court also expressed reservations over the standard operating procedure (SOP) evolved by the Centre to deal with the claims of 40 lakh people left out of the draft NRC. The Centre's decision to allow claimants to submit "additional admissible legacy and linkage documents" would amount to "restarting" the NRC verification exercise, it said.

Justice Gogoi pointed out that a person might have earlier submitted a linkage document to establish legacy with a person as his father, which might have been rejected in the NRC. Now the same person can claim a legacy with another person, citing him as his grandfather. This, the court pointed out, would lead to an anomalous situation as the entire "family tree" can be changed by a person on account of the decision to grant a person liberty to file additional documents.

State coordinator Hajela admitted that during the original verification exercise, the authorities had come across instances where people have taken money to allow others to use their father's name to establish a false legacy.

Attorney-general K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said there are instances where some of the claimants are illiterate who may not be fully conversant with the documentation process like proving their linkage or legacy. Senior advocate Kamal C. Chowdhury said this plea could not be accepted as the so-called illiterate persons managed to procure documents to settle in India after crossing the border illegally.

The bench, after hearing the arguments, directed Hajela to submit, by September 4 the possible ramifications of allowing people to claim legacy through a different family member.

The court will hear the matter again on September.

Earlier in the day, in compliance with the court's last order, Hajela filed before the court the district-wise percentage of people left out of the NRC exercise.

The names of 40,70,707 people, out of a total of 3.29 crore applicants, do not figure in the complete draft NRC, the first list of which was published on December 31, 2017, and the second on July 30, 2018.

The court indicated that the process of filing claims and objections would now commence on September 7 instead of August 30.