NRC: Excluded from list, what happens to those who exhaust all legal options

New Delhi, Aug 31: The Final NRC list has been released and over 19 lakh names have been excluded. With this begins a long drawn legal process, which will finally end up in the Supreme Court and that decision would be final.

After a person, whose name has been excluded exhausts all legal options, what happens to him or her next.

After exhausting all legal options, if the person is still declared a foreigner, then he or she would not be able to obtain an Aadhaar card as the biometrics would be flagged.

During the NRC exercise, the UIDAI had recorded the biometric details of all those who had filed claims. In case the person is declared a foreigner, then their biometrics would be flagged as a result of which their would not be able to obtain an Aadhaar card. This would mean that they would not be eligible for several benefits including government subsidy.

Legal options:

As many as 200 additional foreigners tribunals will be operational in Assam from Monday where bona fide citizens, whose names do not figure in the final NRC, can approach to challenge their exclusion, officials said on Friday.

These tribunals are being set up by the Assam government with the Centre's assistance.
Under Section 8 of the Schedule to the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003, a person whose name has been excluded can appeal.

The first appeal would be before the Foreigners Tribunal, within 120 days, that is before December 31 2019. The case would need to be disposed off within 6 months. If a person is not satisfied with the decision of the FT, he or she can prefer an appeal in the High Court. The ordered of the High Court can be appealed in the Supreme Court as well. The decision of the Supreme Court, will be final.