India cannot be the refugee capital of the world, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Friday, while requesting for an extension of deadline for final National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, informed the court that 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 Assam. "We want to fully ascertain that no name has wrongly come in. At the same time, we have information about some genuine exclusion as well. India cannot be the refugee capital of the world," Mehta told SC.
The NRC list, identifying genuine citizens of Assam, was expected to be published by July 31. NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela, in his recent report to the Supreme Court, had said the final NRC publication could extend to the first week of September. This delay has been due to the time taken for re-verification of claims submitted by persons who stood excluded in the draft NRC published last year.
This is not the only worry facing the bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice RF Nariman, which is monitoring the implementation of NRC. In separate applications, the Centre and Assam government have demanded 20% sample re-verification of the NRC lists already prepared, pertaining to areas bordering Bangladesh.
To make matters worse, Hajela said the ongoing floods in the state have forced NRC officials to shift files in trunks to safer locations.
The draft NRC in July 2018 contained over 2.89 crore residents. About 40 lakh stood excluded then. Upon further verification, the NRC Coordinator weeded out another 1.02 lakh names.
Out of 40 lakh exclusions, only 2 lakh persons sought re-verification. If such a sample re-verification is carried out, Centre wants the exercise to be conducted by an officer who is strictly not a local and at a district away from the area in question.
The bench asked Hajela to respond to the application by Centre and Assam and posted the matter for orders on Tuesday. On a first impression, the Court told Centre that a sample re-verification will be unnecessary as the process of verification by NRC has extensively covered 80% families in the first round. Moreover, the Court was certain that such an exercise would further push the deadline of publication of final NRC.
IN OR OUT? WHAT NRC NUMBERS SAY
Centre points to perception that lakhs of illegal migrants have got into list
- 2.89 cr Number of residents in the draft NRC prepared in July 2018
- 40 lakh Number of residents who stood excluded in the 2018 draft NRC
- 1.02 lakh Names the NRC Coordinator removed in further verification
- 2 lakh Number of people (of 40L exclusions), who sought reverification
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