New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended the time for filing of inclusion claims with regards to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam from 15 to 31 December.
The direction was passed by a two judge bench comprising of the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton F. Nariman after the Assam government sought an extension till 15 January. 1.42 million inclusion claims have been received till now.
The NRC is a list of Indian citizens of Assam. It was prepared in 1951, following the census of that year.
The NRC in Assam was updated under the Citizenship Act, 1955, and according to the rules framed in the Assam Accord, to wean out illegal migrants from Bangladesh following a Supreme Court order of 2013.
The process of filing claims and objections with regard to the NRC released by Assam was flagged off on 25 September. About 28.9 million of the 32.9 million applicants were included in the final draft of the NRC released on 30 July.
People who had been excluded from the final draft, including 248,000 classified as “doubtful voters”, can file their claims for inclusion in the NRC.