AMN / NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court today said the publication of the complete draft NRC of Assam cannot be the basis of any coercive action against anyone since it is merely a draft.
It also directed the Centre to formulate Standard Operating Procedure, SOP to deal with claims and objections.
The apex court directed the Centre to place the SOP before it for approval and said it should be fair and giving reasonable opportunity to contest exclusion.
A bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman said the Centre should place the SOP before it by August 16 and that a local registrar has to give notice to those who have filed claims and objections, and give them reasonable opportunity for hearing.
At the outset, Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator Prateek Hajela placed before the court its status report giving details of publication of the draft NRC yesterday.
Referring to the statement by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the fears of influx to adjoining States, the Attorney General said claims and objection by all those left out in the draft NRC have to be considered and would involve a proper hearing with the local registrar issuing notice and calling for documents as provided under the statute.
Saying that the claims and objections will have to be considered carefully, the Attorney General told the court that “full opportunity must be given to all”.
As Venugopal said there may be a need for biometric proof, the court refused to get into it.
“Mr. AG, at the moment we don’t express any opinion. Our silence should not be construed as agreement or consent,” Justice Gogoi said.
The court was also informed by the Attorney General that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) giving the modalities for dealing with the claims and procedures will be prepared by the concerned ministry by August 15.
Fixing August 16 as next date of hearing, the bench observed that the SOP must be fair.
At the outset of the hearing, the State Co-ordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Prateek Hajela, informed the court about the compliance of the court’s order with the publication of draft NRC on July 30.
On a question by Justice Gogoi about how much time it will take to publish the final NRC, saying “we have read somewhere that it will be published by December 31”, Hajela said: “We have not fixed any date.”
The draft NRC would be open for inspection till August 7, he said. Thereafter, from August 8, training of officials to deal with the claims and objection would commence.
The filing of the claims and the objections would commence from August 30 and will last till September 28.