Assam government lying on NRC re-verification issue: Upamanyu Hazarika

Convener of the Prabajan Virodhi Manch and senior advocate Upamanyu Hazarika on Sunday took a dig at the Assam government is lying on the National Register of Citizen (NRC) re-verification issue. In a press statement Hazarika stated that the Chief Minister and the State Government have been stating that the issue of NRC re-verification is pending with the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the government is therefore awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision, thereby disowning all responsibility in this regard. The legal and factual position have been completely misstated by the Chief Minister and his government.

The Chief Minister in his speech before the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) executive and response to the question in the Assembly on 31st August has said that the issue of NRC re-verification is pending in the Supreme Court and an affidavit from the government had been filed in July 2019. The falsity of this assertion is evident not only from the order of the Supreme Court but also communication from the Ministry of Home Affairs dated 02.12.2019 which has very clearly recorded that the Supreme Court has dismissed the plea for re-verification. (The said communication is attached below). The relevant extract reads as follows: -

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“The Hon’ble Supreme Court in order dated 23.07.2019 in the matter of Assam Public Works vs the Union of India and others has taken note of the prayers made on the behalf of the Union of India and the State of Assam for a sample re-verification of a limited percent of the exercise done so far to take care of wrongful inclusions and exclusions . But did not consider it necessary to accede to the prayers”.

It is clear that the Chief Minister’s and the State government’s stand have been falsified by the Central government.

In fact, the power to review and re-verify the NRC is an executive power vested in District Registrar, usually the District Magistrate under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of Nation Identity Card) Rule 2003 and this is obtained in Rule 10 of the above Rules where the particulars provided by the individuals or the family are found to be incorrect, the person can be removed from the NRC.   

The legal position as obtained today is that, after publication of the final NRC on 31st August 2019, the power to review and re-verify any entry in the NRC is vested with the government and there is therefore no need to apply to the Court. In any case the application for re-verification preferred by the Central and State government in July 2019 was the Draft NRC stage, which came to be dismissed. Thereafter, in the final NRC which was made public on 31st August 2019, the power to re-verify rests with the government.

It is clear that neither the Chief Minister nor his government have any interest in NRC re-verification otherwise they would not deliberately obstruct the process of re-verification by making false assertions and pushing the responsibility on to the Hon’ble Supreme Court.  The NRC in it’s present form will reduce indigenous to a minority as against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s assessment of 50 lacs in 2004, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government assessment of 80 lac infiltrators in 2016 , present NRC  has excluded only 19 lacs , including a large number of foreigners.

But the present government which came to power on the promise of protecting indigenous identity, has willingly permitted a large number of foreigners to become citizens.

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