No coercive action against for now against those whose names are missing in draft NRC says SC

New Delhi, July 31: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it proposes to collect biometric data along with claims and objections of those who challenge the non-inclusion of their names in the NRC. The submission was made before a Bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman.

The Supreme Court directed the Union Government to prepare a standard operating procedure to provide fair mechanism to deal with claims and objections of over 40 lakh persons who have been excluded from the draft NRC of Assam. The court said that the same shall be placed before it on August 16.

The Assam State NRC Coordinator, Prateek Hajela told the court that the local registrars will start receiving claims and objections from August 30 onwards. The court reminded that such a process needs to be fair. The court also said that no coercive action will be taken against the 40 lakh people since only a draft NRC has been published. Hajela then told the court that that 37.59 lakh names had been rejected and 2.48 lakh names had been put on hold. Meanwhile an association of transgenders requested the court to give a second chance to 20,000 transgenders to fill in the form. They said only 2,000 had filled the form. The court however rejected their request and said, " you have missed the bus, the court will not re-open the exercise to invite a flood of such applications.