TheGauhati High Court has appointed 221 new members to the existing 100 and 121new Foreigners' Tribunals (FT)in Assam ahead of a week for the publication ofthe National Register of Citizens' (NRC).
Accordingto notification, the members consist of retired judicial officers, advocatesand civil servants who were interviewed between July 16 and August 11 based onmerit. Another 50 names have been placed in the waiting list.
TheForeigners' Tribunals are the quasi-judicial bodies that will rule on the fateof people to be excluded from the final list of the NRC to be published onAugust 31. It will essentially decide whether the excluded individual is anIndian citizen and therefore be allowed to reside in Assam.
AssamChief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal's comment on NRC that after the publicationof the final list, the government will take necessary steps if necessary hastriggered a storm, with many reading it to understand the BJP which is in powerat the centre and the state, may use the legislative (or ordinance) route tore-examine the list.
TheSupreme Court on last month has turned down pleas for NRC-re-verificationthrice after the Centre and the State alleged rampant misuse of legacy dataleading to inclusion of illegal migrants and exclusion of citizens.
Sonowal'scomment also reflects growing anxieties within the BJP that the final NRC mayend up excluding large numbers from the majority community, the party's corevote bank.
Accordingto Assam BJP, it has every right to question the NRC.
Meanwhile,BJP Spokesperson Bijon Mahajan said that what one can do if a large amount ofillegal foreigners enter the NRC saying that they have to think on thecorrectional measures to weed out the same. He also said that they have lot of respectfor the top court and therefore, the NRC is coming out on August 31.
