Prateek Hajela says no to five documents for claims and objections in NRC

Guwahati, October 23, 2018:

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) co-ordinator Prateek Hajela on Tuesday submitted a report stating that five documents should not be allowed to be used for claiming inclusion in NRC before the Supreme Court of India.

The five documents are

• Names in NRC, 1951
• Names in Electoral Roll up to March 24, 1971
• Citizenship Certificate; and Refugee Registration Certificate
• Certified copies of pre-1971 Electoral Roll, particularly, those issued from the State of Tripura

Ration Card.The Supreme Court in a hearing held earlier allowed the filing of claims and objections based on ten documents.

However, it kept the issue of reliance on aforesaid five documents open and asked NRC Co-ordinator Prateek Hajela to give his views on the permissibility of placing reliance on those five documents.

Hajela now has stated that the five documents should not be used.

The Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Nariman following this has asked all stakeholders including Central and Assam government to respond to Hajela’s suggestions.

The Court has also directed Hajela to make a power point presentation and display it before the officials of the State in the presence of Attorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

After this the stakeholders will then have to submit their response before October 30.

The next hearing on the issue is on November 1.

The Supreme Court also asked the Assam Government and Centre to behave like a state and not an individual.