New Delhi: By the end of this year, Assam will have its draft of National Register of Citizens — a one-of its kind of exercise to update the citizen's register post 1951. The updated list will include those who came to the state before March 24, 1971.
The fate of 47 lakh residents, however, hangs in the balance as they have submitted 'Panchayat Certificates' as proof of citizenship — a document held invalid by the High Court. The matter is currently sub-judice in the Supreme Court.
As the issue enters the penultimate lap, News18 speaks to Home Secretary Prateek Hajela, the man who is heading the Supreme Court-monitored project. Edited excerpts:
What is the mandate of NRC? And what is the method used?
The mandate is basically to make a list of all the citizens who are living in Assam. The method being used is a detailed kind of process wherein the question of who is the citizen is decided as per the Citizenship Act.
Is there a distinction going to be made between the 'original inhabitants' and the 'others' in the register?
No distinction is going to be made in the draft NRC which is being prepared. The draft will have the names of those who are the citizens of India and no distinction will be made on how the citizenship is achieved. Somebody might have submitted electoral rolls of 1951, someone else might have shown documents from Foreigners Tribunal where he/she has been held as Indian. As far as citizenship is concerned, it is one and there are no categories in it.
The Gauhati High Court had recently held that Panchayat secretary issued residency certificate that had “no statutory sanctity” and could “at best be a private document”. How does that impact lakhs of those (mostly women) who had used this document to prove citizenship?
The matter is sub-judice. The Guahati High Court had held that the certificate issued by the Panchayat secretary could at best be a private document and hence cannot be used for determining the citizenship and for the NRC process. But a few organisations have filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court and the matter is pending there. The next hearing is scheduled for November 15.
How many people submitted panchayat certificate as proof of citizenship?
This was asked by the Honourable Supreme Court as well and I have told the court that there are about 47 lakh cases where the Panchayat certificate is being used.
In case the Supreme Court upholds the High Court order, what happens to these 47 lakh people? Would they be given another chance to submit more documents?
At this point, it is absolutely inadvisable to speak on the matter as the matter is sub-judice. We will wait for the apex court's direction before taking any step in this regard.
There have been a number of cases of forged documents being submitted. So if a person submits forged papers, what is the procedure to figure that out?
The veracity of documents are checked from the source authorities. For example, someone submits a copy of the birth certificate, we would verify it against the records of the concerned department. If the details match, it is authentic, otherwise it is forged.
What happens to the 'D-Voters' now? Those already branded as alleged illegal immigrants.
There is a Supreme Court order which says those who have been identified as D-Voter by the Election Commission of India, will have to get a clearance from the Foreigners Tribunal before their name can be listed in the NRC. The Tribunal is the appellate authority for NRC as well. If a decision on someone’s citizenship is pending before the Tribunal, then the NRC authority cannot determine whether he or she can be granted citizenship.
What happens when the NRC list is out and a person's name is not there?
The list that is coming out is the draft NRC. After the list comes out, an aggrieved party can appeal to the NRC for inclusion of his/her name. It is only when all those cases are disposed of that the final NRC list can be released. And if someone is still not satisfied, he/she can approach the Foreigners Tribunal.
Are you ready to publish the NRC list by December 31, 2017?
The Supreme Court has asked us to publish the draft NRC by December 31, 2017 and we will be ready by then.
Any figure on the number of bogus claims to citizenship?
All the figures are speculative. It is difficult to give a figure because it is a work in progress. We are getting all the details checked. Also citizenship by descent is a crucial for us. We are also finding cases where a number people have actually listed the same father or mother.
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