The NRC headache just won’t go away! The Government of India keeps the citizens in doubt and confusion about the national register of Citizens exercise, while ASSAM, the ‘test case’ for NRC is in turmoil.

The Assam Public Works (APW) has filed yet another petition in the Supreme Court pleading that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) be put on hold till disposal of the two writ petitions by the constitution bench.

Addressing a press conference, APW president Aabhijeet Sharma said the APW has submitted another affidavit, stating  that the NRC has not only excluded names of sons of the soil but also included names of almost 80 lakh illegal migrants.

“Suspend the update of NRC till the disposal of WP (c) No. 562/12 and WP (c) No. 311/15 by the constitution bench,” Sharma demanded.

The two petitions before the Supreme Court have been filed by the Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha.

Under Article 6 of the Constitution, the cut-off date for migration to India from Pakistan is July 19, 1948 whereas it is March 24, 1971 for Assam, which borders Bangladesh.

“The base year of 1971 will not protect the rights of indigenous people because many migrants from the erstwhile East Pakistan and later Bangladesh have entered Assam since 1951,” the ASM has contended.

The Supreme Court is yet to constitute a constitution bench to hear the case.

Meanwhile, the petitioner has also demanded appointment of a judicial committee to detect the anomalies committed during the entire process of NRC update.

The APW has urged the Supreme Court to direct investigation agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency and Enforcement Directorate to carry out probe to book the persons responsible.

“We have said in the affidavits that the Supreme Court was crystal clear in its order released on August 13, 2019 that the validity of the NRC shall not be considered till the final settlement of the cases 562/2012 and 311/2015 in the court of constitution bench,” he said.

“Till the final settlement of those two cases, we have appealed for a pause in the NRC update process for the time being and to go for a 100 per cent reverification of the entire process. Along with that, we have also pleaded for a proper investigation to be done by forming a judicial committee to find the discrepancies involved in NRC.

 We have also recommended that agencies like CBI, NIA and ED be allowed to do the needful to find the misappropriation of various segments of the process,” Sharma said.

– From Mohit Brahma, Guwahati

  Assam, citizen journalism, Citizenship Amendment Act, NRC, Supreme Court