Contradictions Galore: NRC orders re-verification with a new software

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: With the State NRC (National Register of Citizens) authority having doubts over certain vital aspects of the 'Speaking Orders', it has decided to re-verify all of them, which are lakhs in number. And with this, uncertainty has once again engulfed the process of issuing the 'Rejection Orders' to the people found ineligible for entry in the final NRC (National Register of Citizens).

The NRC authority has directed all the Circle Officers and Field-level NRC officers to use its specifically designed software "for critically examining all the Speaking Orders".

Sources informed that the State NRC authority has taken this decision after it found "contradictions" in many such Speaking Orders which are in-house documents. These were prepared by around 3,000 Disposing Officers who are government officials during the hearing process of NRC update.

The 'Speaking Orders' mention the reasons for leaving out people's names from the final NRC. Based on these 'Speaking Orders', the NRC authority issues the 'Rejection slips' or 'Rejection Orders' to the ineligible persons.

Within 120 days after receiving the respective 'Rejection Orders', the ineligible persons will have to approach the Foreigners Tribunals (FT). While issuing the respective 'Rejection Slips/Orders', the FTs will have to give their opinions as to whether the persons concerned are foreigners or Indian citizens. The FTs will have to also state whether an ineligible person will be eligible for further inclusion in the final NRC (that was published on August 31, 2019).

Earlier, the State NRC authority had found 19,06,657 persons ineligible for inclusion in the final NRC. Altogether 3,30,27,661 persons through 68,37,660 applications had applied for inclusion in the final NRC. In other words, 3,11,21,004 names were found eligible for inclusion in final NRC.

The process of NRC update was started in Assam as per order of the Supreme Court of India in 2013. The process of receipt of NRC application forms started during the end of May 2015 and ended on August 31, 2015.

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