The Centre on Friday asked the Top Court to extend the July 31 deadline for the Assam NRC list. Solicitor General (SG) and senior Supreme Court lawyer, Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and Assam Government before the Top Court pleaded to extend the July 31 deadline for final NRC (National Register of Citizens).
Requesting the Top Court to extend the deadline, Senior Lawyer Tushar Mehta said, ‘there is a growing perception that lakhs of illegal migrants have been included in the NRC list in alleged collusion with local NRC officials in the state of Assam. Illegal immigrants have to be dealt with severely. India cannot be the refugee capital of the world.”
Following which the Top Court fixed National Register of Citizens (NRC) matter for further hearing on July 23.
Earlier, the Top Court on Tuesday declined to grant an urgent hearing on the plea. The Top Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, asserted that it will examine the petition. Court said, ‘We will see, We will examine the petition first’.
READ: Top Court declines to give an urgent hearing on a plea seeking extension of NRC July 31 deadline
Mehta told SC,"there is a growing perception that lakhs of illegal migrants have been included in the NRC list in alleged collusion with local NRC officials in the state of Assam. Illegal immigrants have to be dealt severely. India cannot be the refugee capital of the world." https://t.co/jqiWaW99zE
— ANI (@ANI) July 19, 2019
Earlier, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had criticized the Centre and the Ministry of Home Affairs’ plea requesting a suspension of the NRC work during the general elections.
NRC is a register containing names of Indian citizens, which was prepared for the first time in 1951 and is being updated only for Assam to remove the illegal immigrants.
The first draft of NRC was published during the intervening nights of December 31, 2017, and January 1, 2018, containing 1.9 crore names. The final draft of the NRC for Assam which was published on July 30, excluded 40 lakh names and included 2.9 crore people out of the total applications of 3.29 crore.
As per the directions, The NRC is being updated under the monitor of the Supreme Court and the final list will be published on July 31st, 2019.