Govt gives those out of NRC time till Oct 28 to file claims

NEW DELHI: Claims and objections from the public on inclusion and exclusion of names in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam will start on August 30 and continue till October 28, according to the standard operating procedure (SOP) filed by the Centre before the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Notices will be issued to parties concerned by November 30 and hearing will start on December 15.

It said claims for inclusion would be entertained only from those who had applied in 2015, when applications were called, and whose names were left out in the draft NRC published on July 30. However, anyone can file objections against ‘wrongful’ inclusion. “There is no penalty for rejection of an application made in respect of objection for inclusion of name in the draft NRC,” it said.

“During the course of hearings, the state government in collaboration with UIDAI will undertake the process of biometric enrolment of all applicants. The biometric enrolment in respect of persons who are part of claims and those persons objected upon will be distinctive and separate ID will be generated,” the SOP said.

“Once the final NRC is published, such persons who are included in the NRC will be given the usual Aadhaar number as applicable to legal residents in the country.” “Submission of claims and corrections or application in respect of ‘doubtful voter or declared foreigner’ is restricted to applicants who (had) submitted their applications up to August 31, 2015. Linkage documents for claims/objections must have been issued prior to August 31, 2015.”

The SOP allowed those seeking inclusion of names to submit ‘additional legacy documents’ provided these were legally valid and belonged to categories of documents specified earlier. Those who had relied on unofficial documents would be permitted to lead oral evidence at the time of hearing, it said.

Apart from taking oral evidence into account, “disposal of the claim will be done based on all documents submitted during claim and also those submitted up to publication of complete draft NRC,” it said.

However, the SOP said, “No fresh details of family tree will be taken during the filing of claims and objections. The family tree declared at the time of verification process/application process will remain valid for the purpose of claims and objections.”