AAMSU and Jamiat Ullema-i-Hind file IA in Supreme Court, demand convenience for persons undergoing NRC verification
Dubai | Sunday, 28 April 2019
Presence of army officials at the NRC office for guidance and to ensure smooth procedures, Hojai
Picture credits: Kabir Ahmed
All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind filed an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court for all persons forced to travel long distances for the claim cases of the NRC.
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At the Supreme Court hearing on April 10, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi directed the Assam NRC State Coordinator, Prateek Hajela to take steps to ensure maximum convenience possible for the individuals undergoing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) verification process.
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For the case of the family-tree based hearing in which all members of the family are required to be present for verification, the Supreme Court said that the hearings will take place in the district where the maximum number of members are residing.
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President of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Assam, Maulana Mushtaque Anfar said: “The people are put under great distress because of the hearings which are located 500 to 700 km away.
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“The whole family is forced to come because even if one member fails to attend and verify, then their Indian citizenship will be put at risk.”
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Maulana Mushtaque suggested the hearings to be carried out at the local NSK (NRC Seva Kendras – centres to assist the public in enrolling in the NRC updation process) centres allotted for each district.
A man whose name did not appear on the NRC heads to the NRC office for verification along with his daughter hoping to get both their names on the list. His wife who passed away had her name on the NRC.
Picture credits: Kabir Ahmed
“Nobody should have to travel so far. We put this matter up in the Supreme Court, because the people are being oppressed. There was a group of people required to travel the distance of 400 km from Hojai to Silchar.
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On the way they were stopped, beaten and had all their legal documents snatched whilst the attackers declared, “You are all from Bangladesh”. Now, they don’t have any documents.”
For the objection cases, he stated: “We have told the Supreme Court that instead of calling people to the place the objections have been made, they should be called at their own places so it will be easier for them to provide proof.”
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The NRC is a register made after the census of 1951 which contains the names of all the Indian citizens of Assam. The first updation process of the register began in 2013. All residents of Assam were required to provide proof of their Indian citizenship.
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In July 2018, the draft list of the NRC was published. Out of the 32.9 million applicants, around 4 million names were left out of the list.
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The final draft is set to publish in July 2019 and until then all claim and objection cases are to be considered.
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Whoever is declared to be a foreigner will be taken to one of the six detention camps which are located within the jail premises of Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Tezpur.
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For the upcoming elections, all NRC claims and objections have been put on hold and will commence after May 25.