CJI Ranjan Gogoi Hails NRC As ‘Document For The Future’; Slams Media For Irresponsible Reportage

Soon to retire, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi today (3 November) hailed the Supreme Court supervised National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise as a base document for the future, reports Indian Express.

Speaking at the launch of the book titled, 'Post Colonial Assam', CJI Gogoi said, "This is an occasion to put things in proper perspective, National Register of Citizens (NRC), as it may finally emerge, is not a document of the moment. 19 lakh or 40 lakh is not the point. It’s a base document for the future."

CJI Gogoi also called out irresponsible reportage by a few media outlets and asserted that such reporting over the sensitive matter has only worsened the situation. He added, "There was an urgent need to ascertain with some degree of certainty the number of illegal migrants, which is what the current exercise of NRC had attempted, nothing more nothing less."

It should be noted that the NRC's final draft was published close to two months ago on 31 August, as per which, more than 19 lakh individuals had been left out from the list of citizens of India. The entire process had been mandated, and also monitored by the Supreme Court.