August 7, 2018
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court held Assam co-coordinator of the National Register for Citizens (NRC) Prateek Hajela & Registrar General of India guilty of contempt of court.
The SC also reprimanded both Hajela & the Registrar General of India for making statements to media on the NRC Assam modalities when nothing had been informed to the Court.
The Apex Court stated, "You (Assam NRC Coordinator & Registrar General of India) are guilty of Contempt of Court. Why Hajela & the Registrar General made any statements to media on NRC Assam modalities when nothing had been informed to the Court."
On 30th July, the 2nd draft that was released included names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants in Assam. It left out names of nearly 40 lakh people.
On 31st July, the court while hearing the case observed that the process of filing objections by those whose names weren't listed in the NRC draft should be fair.
A division bench of the SC, headed by the senior-most Supreme Court Judge Justice Ranjan Gogoi, also directed the Centre to prepare standard operating procedure (SOP) for claims & objections.
The court had directed Hajela & the central govt. to submit before the court the process or modalities they would follow to file the objections.
The 1st draft of the NRC for Assam was released on the intervening night of December 31, 2017 & January 1 which included names of 1.9 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants.
The NRC draft for Assam features the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971.
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