The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that rejection slips for around 19 lakh people excluded from Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) have not yet been issued because the final NRC is still awaiting formal notification.
In an affidavit, the Registrar General of India said the state NRC coordinator was still working on a security mechanism to preserve the NRC data. The data has not yet been handed over to the RGI, which can formally notify the final register only after receiving it.
The final NRC, published in August 2019, included 3.11 crore applicants, while 19.07 lakh were excluded. The Supreme Court had earlier directed the state NRC coordinator to establish a mechanism for issuing rejection slips, enabling excluded applicants to challenge their exclusion before Foreigners Tribunals.
The NRC coordinator had informed the RGI in October 2020 that rejection slips could be issued only after formal notification of the final NRC.
The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the matter to November 6 after the Assam government sought time to file its response. The petitions seek rejection slips for those excluded from the NRC and NRC cards for those included in the final list.
