Assam NRC: Rejection slips for 19 lakh excluded applicants not issued yet, Centre tells SC

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that the process of issuing rejection slips to around 19 lakh people excluded from Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) has not yet begun, as the final NRC is yet to be formally notified.

The Registrar General of India (RGI), in an affidavit filed before the apex court, said the state NRC coordinator was still working on a "security regime" for preserving the NRC data.

The data has not yet been handed over to the RGI, which can formally notify the final NRC only after receiving it, the affidavit said.

"Enactment of the security regime for NRC data by the state coordinator is in progress, and hence data has not been shared with the Registrar General of India (RGI)," it said.

The affidavit further said the process of issuing rejection slips "has not been started yet" by the state NRC coordinator.

The final NRC, published in August 2019, included 3.11 crore applicants while 19.07 lakh applicants were excluded.

The Supreme Court had earlier directed the state NRC coordinator to develop a mechanism for issuing rejection slips to those excluded from the final list, allowing them to challenge their exclusion before Foreigners Tribunals.

The state NRC coordinator subsequently informed the RGI in October 2020 that rejection slips could be issued only after the final NRC was formally notified by the RGI.

The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the matter for hearing to November 6 after the Assam government sought time to file its response.

The apex court was hearing petitions filed by the Assam State Jamiat Ulama, All Assam Minority Students Union, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and others seeking rejection slips for those excluded from the NRC and NRC cards for those included in the final list.

The development leaves the procedural status of the 2019 NRC unresolved, with the formal notification of the final register still pending.