Centre Urges SC To Extend NRC Publication Deadline Of 31 July; Seeks Re-Verification Of Inclusions

The Centre on Friday (19 July) told the Supreme Court that lakhs of people had been wrongly included in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and requested the apex court to extend the 31 July deadline for final NRC, reports News18.

Appearing on behalf of the Centre, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said, "Illegal migrants must be uprooted but this should be done after utmost care".

The solicitor general added that the problem largely exists in districts bordering Bangladesh. He asserted that "India cannot be the refugee capital of the world".

Earlier on Tuesday (16 July), the Centre moved the apex court seeking an extended timeline for publication of final NRC from July 2019 to a future date, saying that the allotted time was not enough for such a cumbersome process.

The Centre has appraised that the names of Indian citizens are deliberately excluded in the draft to accommodate illegal Bangladeshi migrants into the draft.

The government, in the affidavit, had sought a direction from the apex court for a 20 per cent 20 per cent re-verification of the final draft NRC in districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent in rest of Assam.

The petition also sought the re-verification to be done at a distant place away from the where the initial NRC verification was done to rule out any possibility of local influences, bias and threat.