SC Seeks Reply From Centre, Assam On Plea Seeking I-Cards For Those Included In NRC L
SC Seeks Reply From Centre, Assam On Plea Seeking I-Cards For Those Included In NRC List
M.U.H
11/08/202614
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the Centre and the Assam government on a batch of pleas concerning the issuance of National Register of Citizens (NRC) identity cards to persons included in the NRC list published in August 2019.
The matter came up before a bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe. Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and Sanjay R. Hegde, along with advocate Adeel Ahmed appeared in the connected proceedings.
The petitions concerning the NRC ID Card issue filed by, inter alia, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU), and the Assam Sankhyalaghu Sangram Parishad have been tagged and are being considered together.
A connected matter involving Hitesh Dev Sarma, represented through advocate Manish Goswami has also been tagged with the batch. In the said proceedings, the issue raised concerns a plea for re-certification/re-verification of the NRC exercise.
Therefore, the batch of pleas brings before the apex court connected questions concerning the post-publication consequences of the Assam NRC, including the issue of NRC identity cards, while the connected plea seeking re-certification/re-verification is also before the court.
It was argued that notice has been issued but the Union and state government are yet to file a reply.
After briefly hearing Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, the bench directed that Sarma's petition may be tagged and heard after the replies have been filed.
The petitioners contend that despite the 2019 NRC publication, authorities failed to carry out mandatory steps under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003: they did not issue national identity cards to the 3.11 crore persons found eligible under Rule 13, nor did they issue rejection slips or initiate appeals under Paragraph 8 of the Schedule to Rule 4A for the 19 lakh individuals excluded from the NRC.
