In an important verdict on Thursday, the Supreme Court has rejected Union Home Ministry’s plea to extend the deadline for publishing the draft NRC from December 31, 2017 to July 31, 2018 and directed that the draft NRC of 2 crore verified people be published on December 31 this year and the rest by January 20, 2018.
Earlier a division bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Nariman kept its verdict reserved on the matter relating to gaon panchayat documents as supporting documents for NRC and fixed November 29 and 30 as new dates for hearing the matters relating to Original Indian and extension of date for draft publication of NRC.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Assam government for making a “sweeping statement” that 15 per cent of the state population is tribal and are away from the mainstream.
“You are making a sweeping statement. You are the state. How can you say so? You are making dangerous statement that 15 per cent population is tribal and they are not in the mainstream,” a bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman said.
The court’s observation came after Assam’s counsel referred to this issue and said the government was trying to make them come forward in the ongoing process of updating and publication of draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.