GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Centre's plea for more time to submit the draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC), 1951, for Assam and ordered it to submit it throughout the December 31 time limit that had been set previous. The draft version, the court stated, should include the names of electorate whose citizenship has been verified so far and those that can be verified within the next 4 weeks as Indian electorate. The bench — comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman — which has been tracking the mega updating exercise being carried out via Registrar General of India, got here down closely at the Centre for in the hunt for extension of time limit even after three years passing via in the entire procedure.
"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 dominated. "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 listen the matter again on February 20, 2018 for additional orders.
The bench took strong exception to a competition of Attorney General KK Venugopal that fixing a date for newsletter of the draft NRC is an "executive function" and an order on the time frame via the court could be an encroachment at the executive area 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 within the day, the court requested Venugopal if any other request for additional extension would not be sought later. The Attorney General submitted that any such chance may just not be dominated 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 means of the 38 lakh individuals — whose documents, Hajela had submitted, want to be reverified — on or before December 31via deploying further manpower and sources.
"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 dominated. "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 listen the matter again on February 20, 2018 for additional orders.
The bench took strong exception to a competition of Attorney General KK Venugopal that fixing a date for newsletter of the draft NRC is an "executive function" and an order on the time frame via the court could be an encroachment at the executive area 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 within the day, the court requested Venugopal if any other request for additional extension would not be sought later. The Attorney General submitted that any such chance may just not be dominated 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 means of the 38 lakh individuals — whose documents, Hajela had submitted, want to be reverified — on or before December 31via deploying further manpower and sources.
SC rejects Centre’s plea for extension of NRC deadline
![SC rejects Centre’s plea for extension of NRC deadline]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
December 01, 2017
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