Assam’s district heads have been asked to submit the list of ineligible people whose names have been included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) published in August 2019. They have also been told to write speaking orders for deletion of such names from the list of citizens.
In a letter to every Deputy Commissioner and district registrar of citizen registration on October 13, State NRC Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said some names of ineligible people belonging to the “categories of DF/DV/PFT along with their descendants have found entry to the NRC”.
The DF, DV and PFT stand for “declared foreigner”, “doubtful voter” and “pending in Foreigners’ Tribunal”.
Mr. Sarma pointed out that the local registrars of citizen registration had prepared and published the supplementary list of names after disposal of claims and objections while the “Registrar General of India is yet to publish the final NRC as per Clause 7 of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003”.
He cited other clauses of the same Rules necessitating verification of names of such persons and recording of the reasons for their inclusion or exclusion.
“As such, you are requested to write speaking orders for deletion of such names... after specifically ascertaining the identity of the person. The verification would mandatorily require the correct identity of the person so that no ambiguity arises in future,” the letter said.
A speaking order mentions the reasons for leaving out people’s names from the final NRC. Based on such an order, the NRC authority issues a rejection slip to an ineligible person.
“You are, therefore, requested to submit the list of such persons who are not eligible for having their names in the NRC along with speaking order justifying reasons for each case for necessary action for deletion of such names,” Mr. Sarma wrote.
He also said a software application for submission of reviewed results of such persons along with a mechanism of the freshly written scanned speaking orders will be rolled out shortly.
More than 19 lakh people of 3.3 crore applicants were excluded from the final NRC. Those left out would have to appeal to the Foreigners’ Tribunals within 120 days of receiving the rejection slip from the NRC authority.
The process of issuing such notices has not yet begun.
