The Assam government on Monday moved the Supreme Court for an extension of the deadline to file claims and objections for inclusion in the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) by a month.　　

On November 1, a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Nariman had approved the Centre’s draft Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for submission of claims for inclusion in the NRC. It had kept December 15 as the last date for filing of claims by those excluded from the draft of the NRC published on July 30, 2018.　

In its application, filed by advocate Shuvodeep Roy, the State government cited the panchayat elections in the State and exhaustive nature of the claims and objections forms as two major reasons for a time extension. The State said it was not easy for semi-literate and illiterate persons to fill up these forms.　　

The State Election Commission had declared the schedule of panchayat elections on November 5 – four days after the Supreme Court set the deadline for December 15. The polls were held in two phases on December 5 and 9. The counting of votes is to be done on December 12.　　

The Assam government said people across the panchayat areas of Brahmaputra and Barak valley were "taking active part in the democratic process". This, and the lack of proper knowledge of the SOP among the masses, and may be two reasons why the number of claims lodged have been minimal so far.　　

It said the decision of the apex court to allow claimants to bank on five additional documents for inclusion in the final NRC has put an extra onus on the NRC authorities to make the inclusion process fool-proof. Especially, when an overwhelming majority of more than 93% of the total 3.28 crore applicants have applied for inclusion in NRC on the basis of the 1951 NRC or voters’ list up to March 24, 1971.　　

"Thus it may be assumed that people in large numbers have to base their claims and objections on the recently restored five List ‘A’ documents, particularly NRC of 1951, and certified copy or extract of electoral roll of the period prior to March 24, 1971 and are in the process of readying the documents," the State said.　　

Besides other documents like the Pension Payment Order after March 24, 1971 sharing details of appointment to government service period prior to March 24, 1971, camp inmate certificate and relief eligibility certificate as parts of the refugee registration certificate, etc have also got included in the SOP. Thus, more time is needed for claimants to accurately fill up the claims and objections forms.　　

The State said it had written to the State Coordinator, NRC, Assam, on December 1 with a request to move the Supreme Court through the Registrar General of India for the time extension, but there was no response.　　

The State asked the court to direct the Application Receipt Numbers (ARN) of those already included in the final draft NRC to be made available online for enabling the filing of objections against wrongful inclusions. It has also sought an "intensive sample re-verification of 20% inclusions in the final draft NRC".