NRC: Vexed Citizenship Issue Supreme Court Hearing Today

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: In the run-up to the publication of the final NRC on August 31, 2019, the Supreme Court of India is going to hear a few crucial issues pertaining to the Citizenship Act on Wednesday. The apex court’s ruling on two of the citizenship issues, which apparently look paradoxical, is indispensible for the inclusion of applicants – whose only one of the parents is Indian – in the final NRC.

According to the Citizenship Act, in the event of one of a couple being an Indian, their sons and daughters born before December 3, 2004 will be considered Indians.

The Citizenship Act also says that people born after December 3, 2004 will not be considered Indians if one of their parents is an Indian and the other parent is an illegal migrant.

The NRC authority, as directed by the apex court, has already issued a public notice in this regard requesting interested people or parties to file petitions before the apex court on these two vexed citizenship issues.

The Supreme Court’s hearing on Wednesday is also crucial on the citizenship issue of people declared Indians or foreigners under the now-abrogated IM(DT) Act. Since the IM(DT) Act had been scrapped by the Supreme Court of India in 2005, the State NRC authority did seek a directive from the apex regarding the acceptability of rulings (opinions) given under tShe IM(DT) Act.

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