SC reprimands NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela for speaking to media

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court (SC) severely reprimanded National Register of Citizens (NRC) Assam’s state coordinator Prateek Hajela and its registrar Shailesh for speaking to the media about the process that will be adopted for finalisation of the NRC draft.

“Get down to work for finalisation of NRC and never speak to media on this issue without SC’s prior permission…How can officers appointed by the SC talk about something which is to be finalised by us,” the SC Justice Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman fumed.

The apex court also said that it would have initiated contempt proceedings against them had the task of finalisation of the NRC not been urgent.

The final draft of Assam’s NRC was released last Monday. Out of 3.29 crore, about 40 lakh people did not find their names in the final draft.

Meanwhile, Hajela told the top courts that as many as 37.59 lakh names have been rejected and 2.48 lakh names have been put on hold.

The process for making claims and objections will begin on August 30 and continue till September 28. Hajela spoke to news agency ANI on Sunday, and said, “After we will publish the final NRC list post the completion of claims and objections, people will still have the right to appeal in the Foreigners Tribunal if they are not satisfied with the result of the process. 64 Foreign Tribunals are currently working in Assam. They have already declared few people as foreigners in the past,” said Hajela.

The NRC coordinator further said that no legal action would be taken against people whose name are not in the list.

The SC told the Centre no authority will take any coercive action against the over 40 lakh people who have been excluded at present from the list of valid citizens in the final draft of the NRC.

Hajela, while releasing the final draft, emphasised that “this is just a draft, and not the final list. The people who are not included can make claims and objections”.

“Adequate and ample scope will be given to people for making objections. No genuine Indian citizen should have any fear,” Sailesh had added.

The border state of Assam has faced an influx of people from Bangladesh and other parts of the country at various times in the past and ‘illegal immigrants’ have been an emotive and political issue in a state highly divided along religious lines.