SC responds to plea regarding Assam NRC; Grants two weeks to Centre on Aadhaar Card allotment

Guwahati, Oct 14: About the Assam NRC issue, the Supreme Court on Thursday (Oct 14) granted two weeks time to the Centre to look into the issue raised in a plea seeking directions to issue Aadhaar cards to nearly 27 lakh persons who were added in the supplementary list of Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) published in Aug 2019.

 

 

 

 

A bench headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit adjourned the matter for November 9 after Attorney General R Venkataramani sought time to seek instructions from the govt. The apex court in its order stated, "The AG is granted two weeks time to seek appropriate instructions in the matter. He may put in a note so that issues can be resolved on the next date".

 

 

 

 

 

In April this year apex court issued notice to the Central govt, Assam govt and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on the PIL filed by All India Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Sushmita Dev. The plea filed by Dev stated that nearly 27 lakh people, whose names were admitted into the NRC by way of the final supplementary list dated August 31, 2019, are not being provided with their Aadhaar number due to the fact that the NRC biometric data has been put on hold citing the statement of purpose and modalities for disposal of claims and objections prepared by the Union of India.

 

 

It said, consequently, these people are not able to access benefits available through Aadhaar. The plea submitted that once the person has been registered under the NRC, whether it be in the first draft list or the supplementary list, they will be entitled to the same benefits as that of a Citizen of India, and therefore, there exists no intelligible differentia between persons whose names appear in the NRC.