NRC not final, members of Foreigners’ Tribunals in Assam told
The Hindu
A member had asked the State Coordinator not to interfere in the functioning of the tribunals tasked with deciding on a person’s citizenship
GUWAHATI
The State Coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) has reminded members of Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) across Assam to not consider the draft NRC and its supplementary list as reliable evidence for the disposal of cases.
An FT is a quasi-judicial body tasked with deciding the status of citizenship of people suspected to be or marked as foreigners. An FT member is like a judge.
Hitesh Dev Sarma, the State Coordinator, had on April 18 issued letters to the FT members. “Since the Registrar General of Citizens Registration (RGCR) has not declared NRC as final and there are errors, things may change when the final NRC gets published,” he wrote.
About 19.06 lakh out of 3.3 crore applicants were excluded from the complete NRC draft published on August 31, 2019.
An FT member, declining to be quoted, responded to Mr Sarma’s letter on May 10, insisting that the NRC was final and was published in compliance with various orders and judgements of the Supreme Court and through a notification of the RGCR.
He cited Clause 7 of the Citizenship Rules of 2003 and a press statement by former State Coordinator Prateek Hajela on August 31, 2019, “whereby it was clear that the published NRC is the final NRC”.
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