Query on date for exclusion certificate distribution The government will also set up 200 more foreigners tribunals by December

Applicants submit their appeals at an election office in Tezpur on Tuesday after the release of the final NRC list.(PTI)

Rajiv Konwar, TT, 4 Sept 2019,  Guwahati: The Assam government has written to the NRC authorities requesting it to clarify when it will start distributing exclusion certificates to the 19 lakh people left out of the final NRC so that it can operationalise the new 200 foreigners tribunals (FT) accordingly.

The government has already received the list of members for the 200 new foreigners tribunals from Gauhati High Court and the process of selecting the subordinate staff through the State Level Police Recruitment Board is under way. Assam already has 100 foreigners tribunals.

“We have written to the NRC authorities to clarify when they would begin and finish the process of distributing the exclusion certificates to the 19 lakh excluded people,” said the source.

An official associated with the NRC update process said the NRC authority has not yet decided when the distribution of the exclusion certificate will begin.

“However, there is a probability of commencement of the process from mid September,” he said.

A person excluded from the final NRC will have to submit the exclusion certificate issued by the NRC authorities stating the reason of his exclusion, along with other relevant documents when he would appeal to the foreigners tribunal to establish his citizenship.

Besides, the government is also waiting for the district-wise exclusion figure from the NRC authority so that it can distribute the foreigners tribunals in different districts accordingly.

“Setting up of foreigners tribunals in a district will be based on the figure of excluded people from that district. The greater the number of excluded people, the greater will be the requirement of foreigners tribunals in the district,” the source said.

However, before making these data available to the government, the NRC authorities will have to prepare a security regime similar to the one provided for the Aadhar data.

In its August 13 judgment, the Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the NRC update exercise, said, “With regard to maintenance of security of the NRC data, we direct that an appropriate regime be enacted on lines similar to the security regime provided for Aadhar data. Only thereafter, the list of inclusions and exclusions shall be made available to the state government, central government and Registrar-General of India.”

“After clearing all these steps, it will take nearly 45 days to make the new 200 foreigners tribunals operational,” said the source.

While some of the new foreigners tribunals will be operated from the buildings of the existing foreigners tribunals, others will be operated from rented houses.

The Union home ministry has extended the date of filing appeal by the 19,06,657 excluded people from the final NRC to 120 days, adding that those left out of the final NRC will not be treated as foreigners and only the foreigners tribunals have the authority to declare a person a foreigner.

The government will also set up 200 more foreigners tribunals by December.