The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the ongoing process of publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has to be completed by May 31 this year. The court also made it clear that work on this should continue without “any interference from any quarter”.
Before this, sharp differences arose between the court and the Centre over preparation of the NRC. The draft NRC brought out on December 31, 2017 mentions 2.29 crore registered residents. The Centre said it had done its best and sought extension of deadline till July 2018 to publish the final draft in view of the upcoming local body elections. But the court blamed the Centre for not doing enough and warned the State authorities that local body elections should not even “slightly interfere” with the work on NRC and it must be published by May 31, 2018.
The NRC targeted 2.38 crore citizens, of which, 2.29 crore had registered, although verification work with regard to about one crore citizens is still pending. Since this exercise is bound to take time and State officials will get busy with preparations of local body polls, Attorney General KK Venugopal made a strong pitch on behalf of the Centre to extend the NRC work till July 31.
Turning down the request, the Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and RF Nariman said, “Only court is doing its best, nobody else.”
When the A-G rebutted this statement by claiming to be equally prompt in carrying out the exercise, the Bench remarked, “What everybody thought was a big joke has been turned into a reality. It is all about your ability to make the impossible into possible.”
The Bench said that while State Election Commission is duty bound to conduct the local body elections, it will not be at the cost of upgrading and preparing the NRC. The court advised the State and Central administration to deploy additional officers for purposes of election without causing slightest interference with the NRC work.
Also, the court was wary of Centre’s decision to appoint an Additional State Coordinator for NRC in addition to the present Coordinator Prateek Hajela. The latter was present in court and submitted a report that all pending verification work with regard to NRC will be over before May 31. This was in sharp contrast to what the A-G said demanding time till July 31. The court directed the Centre to “desist” from any move to appoint another Coordinator, entrusting Hajela to single-handedly ensure that the NRC exercise is taken to its logical end.
Although Hajela requested an additional one month for mopping up the entire exercise, the Bench asked him to “push it up” and complete the work by May 31. The Bench posted the matter for hearing on March 27 to monitor the work.