The Supreme Court today allowed 15 documents for claims and objections and rejected Prateek Hejala's contention that there would be forgery and phtotoshopping of documents.
This has come as a great relief for 40 lakh people who are outside of the NRC and trying to put in their claims and objections but have not been able to do so for not having a clear guideline.
The Supreme Court Thursday extended the deadline for filing claims and objections of people whose names were not included in the final draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) to December 15 and also allowed claimants to rely on five additional documents, beside the 10 permitted earlier, which were objected by the NRC coordinator, subject to "rigorous verification".
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi rejected the concerns of forgery and photoshop which State coordinator Prateek Hajela had raised initially in his report to the court. Many stakeholders, including Assam government, had demanded inclusion of all 15 documents in their affidavits.
The five documents that Hajela had requested the court to exclude from his report are the 1951 NRC, voter lists up to March 24, 1971, citizenship certificates, refugee registration certificates and ration cards issued prior to March 24, 1971.
The top court also fixed a timeline for issuance of notice to claimants as January 15 and verification of documents as February 1.
Over 40 lakh people had been excluded from the final NRC draft published on July 30 and have been given an option to file fresh claims. Read| 60-day window to file claims by those left out of draft NRC
Earlier a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman set a date for filing claims and objections beginning September 25 for 60 days.
In the second and final draft of the NRC, published on July 30, 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were included. The names of 40.07 lakh applicants did not find a place in the historic document, touted to be a proof of Assamese identity.
The 10 documents include, land documents; permanent residential certificate issued from outside the state; passport; Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) insurance policy; any licence or certificate issued by any government authority; document showing service or employment under government or Public Sector Undertakings; bank or post office accounts; birth certificates issued by the competent authority; educational certificate issued by Boards or Universities; and records or processes pertaining to court, provided they are part of a processing in a judicial or revenue court.
