GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Centre's plea for more time to publish the draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC), 1951, for Assam and ordered it to publish it within the December 31 deadline that had been set earlier. The draft version, the court said, should include the names of citizens whose citizenship has been verified so far and those who will be verified in the next four weeks as Indian citizens. The bench — comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman — which has been monitoring the mega updating exercise being carried out by Registrar General of India, came down heavily on the Centre for seeking extension of deadline even after three years passing by in the whole process.
"The exercise of preparation of the upgradation of the draft NRC has been presently going on for the last three years. Time schedule was first laid by this court by its order dated 17.12.2014. The final time frame laid down by order of this court dated 13.07.2017 contemplates publication of the draft NRC latest by 31st December, 2017," the court ruled. "Thereafter, on the expiry of the midnight of 31st December, 2017, draft NRC pertaining to the 2 crore claims which have been verified or likely to be verified by the said date and the additional 38 lakh claims, mentioned above, will be published. The prayer for extension, accordingly, stands rejected," the court added. The court will hear the matter again on February 20, 2018 for further orders.
The bench took strong exception to a contention of Attorney General KK Venugopal that fixing a date for publication of the draft NRC is an "executive function" and an order on the timeframe by the court would be an encroachment on the executive domain and violation of doctrine of separation of powers.
The bench replied, "The aforesaid contention advanced before the court for the first time overlooks the fact that over a period of three years, the court has been monitoring the matter and fixing appropriate timelines for the completion of different phases of the exercise of updating the NRC. Even on the last date i.e. 13th July, 2017, when 31st December, 2017 was fixed for publication of the draft NRC, the contentions now advanced were not made before the court."
Earlier in the day, the court asked Venugopal if another request for further extension would not be sought later. The Attorney General submitted that such a possibility could not be ruled out.
The bench remarked, "That apart, it is the sheer inaction on the part of the executive in dragging the matter for a period of over three years and the absence of any justifiable cause to hold back even a partial publication that has led the Court to direct publication of the draft NRC on or before 31st December, 2017."
The court directed state coordinator for NRC Prateek Hajela to complete the verification process of the 38 lakh persons — whose documents, Hajela had submitted, need to be reverified — on or before December 31by deploying additional manpower and resources.
"The exercise of preparation of the upgradation of the draft NRC has been presently going on for the last three years. Time schedule was first laid by this court by its order dated 17.12.2014. The final time frame laid down by order of this court dated 13.07.2017 contemplates publication of the draft NRC latest by 31st December, 2017," the court ruled. "Thereafter, on the expiry of the midnight of 31st December, 2017, draft NRC pertaining to the 2 crore claims which have been verified or likely to be verified by the said date and the additional 38 lakh claims, mentioned above, will be published. The prayer for extension, accordingly, stands rejected," the court added. The court will hear the matter again on February 20, 2018 for further orders.
The bench took strong exception to a contention of Attorney General KK Venugopal that fixing a date for publication of the draft NRC is an "executive function" and an order on the timeframe by the court would be an encroachment on the executive domain and violation of doctrine of separation of powers.
The bench replied, "The aforesaid contention advanced before the court for the first time overlooks the fact that over a period of three years, the court has been monitoring the matter and fixing appropriate timelines for the completion of different phases of the exercise of updating the NRC. Even on the last date i.e. 13th July, 2017, when 31st December, 2017 was fixed for publication of the draft NRC, the contentions now advanced were not made before the court."
Earlier in the day, the court asked Venugopal if another request for further extension would not be sought later. The Attorney General submitted that such a possibility could not be ruled out.
The bench remarked, "That apart, it is the sheer inaction on the part of the executive in dragging the matter for a period of over three years and the absence of any justifiable cause to hold back even a partial publication that has led the Court to direct publication of the draft NRC on or before 31st December, 2017."
The court directed state coordinator for NRC Prateek Hajela to complete the verification process of the 38 lakh persons — whose documents, Hajela had submitted, need to be reverified — on or before December 31by deploying additional manpower and resources.
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