Day 7 Arguments
Assam’s National Register of CitizensApril 22nd 2019
The Supreme Court is currently monitoring the inclusion and exclusion of individuals in the updated National Register for Citizens of Assam under the Citizenship Act 1955 and Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Card Rules) 2003. The Court aims to ensure that the NRC as mandated by the Assam Accord of August 15th 1985 may be published.
The case was listed for hearing today as an application for early hearing was filed, however the Bench declined to pass any orders noting that it was not possible to do so at this stage.
Note that the Court has previously announced that the authorities will not take coercive action against the 4 million people, whose names did not figure in the NRC, on the grounds that the July 30th 2018 NRC was merely a draft. Further, on previous occasions, the Court has also rejected the plea of the Central Government to suspend the NRC work in view of the upcoming elections and emphasised that the deadline for completion of the NRC work will not be extended beyond July 31st 2019.