New Rules to Allow Appeals on NRC

• 24 Jul 2018

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has clarified that people who are not part of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam will not be automatically declared foreigners. They will be given a month’s time to file claims and objections, besides subsequent judicial recourse.

• The amended rules (rules in the Foreigners Tribunal Order, 1964) would enable residents whose names don’t feature in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to file an appeal before the Foreigners Tribunals in Assam.
• Under the existing law only State or Police could move the Tribunal against a person suspected to be illegally staying in Assam.
• As per directions of the Supreme Court, the Registrar General of India (RGI) is to publish the final draft list on July 30 to segregate Indian citizens living in Assam from those who had illegally entered the State from Bangladesh after March 24, 1971.

National Register of Citizens

• National Register of Citizens, 1951 is a register prepared after the conduct of the Census of 1951 in respect of each village, showing the houses or holdings in a serial order and indicating against each house or holding the number and names of persons staying therein.
• Assam is the only state where NRC is being updated to identify illegal migrants.
• Under Assam accord which was signed between the leaders of AASU (All Assam Students’ Union)- AAGSP(All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad) and the Government of India in 1985, all the parties agreed that all foreigners who had entered Assam between 1951 and 1961 would be given full citizenship. However, those who entered the state after 1971 will be deported.
• The NRC of 1951 and the Electoral Roll of 1971 (up to midnight of 24 March 1971) are together called Legacy Data. Persons and their descendants whose names appeared in these documents are certified as Indian citizens.