The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) has approached the Supreme Court against the controversial notification of Assam NRC Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma.

NRC Coordinator Dev Sarma in a notification recently asked deputy commissioners (DCs) and district registrars of citizen registration (DRCR) of various districts of Assam to delete the names of “ineligible” persons from the final NRC.

The JUH alleged that a new game to exclude Muslims from NRC in Assam has begun.

The group pointed out that when the Centre and Assam government were seeking re-verification against people whose relatives are not included in the NRC, the Supreme Court rejected their petitions, saying that there is no need for re-verification of NRC, the final list of NRC should be published by August 31, 2019.

Although the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind had filed an appeal in Supreme Court to keep D-Voter on hold, the state coordinator says that they cannot be put on hold, they are foreigners so their names should be removed from NRC.

JUH chief Arshad Madani  alleged that “this is the same Hitesh Dev Sarma who had made controversial statement regarding the Assam citizenship even before he became the state coordinator. Immediately after he became the state coordinator, Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind filed a petition in Supreme Court questioning his appointment. ”

“Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, Jamiat Ulama Assam and All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) have approached the court for challenging the latest order of the State Coordinator in Supreme Court today,” said advocate Fuzail Ayyubi

Madani said, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind will take up the matter challenging the appointment of the new coordinator in the court, which has been pending since last January.

Madani said that the Assam citizenship case is being monitored by a monitoring bench of the Supreme Court and the status of the state coordinator is merely a mediator.

“In such a situation, the basic question arises, in the presence of the monitoring bench, in what capacity did the state coordinator issue such an order? Did they take the monitoring bench into confidence? If not, did they not exceed their authority by doing so?” he said.

Madani said that in principle, his order is a clear violation of the directive given by the Supreme Court from time to time.