Bhuyan couple, a government officer behind NRC’s legal battle at Supreme Court: APW

After the crucial National Register of Citizen (NRC)'s final draft for Assam was published on Monday, the main petitioner for the NRC update in Supreme Court , APW ( Assam Public Works ) President Abhijeet Sarma said that three persons' consistent persuasion to the NGO made final draft of Assam NRC possible.

The three persons named those have been named by APW Chief are Bhuyan couple- Pradip Kumar Bhuyan ( 85) and Banti Bhuyan( 76) of Guwahati and a government officer named – Naba Kumar Deka Baruah , currently serving as CEO of Dhemaji district.

"For Bhuyan couple of Guwahati and a government officer Naba Kumar Deka Baruah, today we have got the final draft of NRC. For their consistent persuasion to us, we had approached the Supreme Court to enumerate the Indian citizens living in Assam. Bhuyan couple spent huge amount of money from their own sources for our legal fight at the Apex Court", said Sarma.

The APW on May 25, 2009 had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking to delete the names of illegal migrants from voters' lists in Assam and updating the NRC. The same was registered on 20th July 2009 in the court of Chief Justice P Sathasivam (Case number 274/2009). APW in its petition sought NRC update with 1971 as base year.

In the petition, the first prayer was to regularise all the East Pakistan people who were accepted as Indians through the Assam Accord. The second prayer was to scrap the voters' list of 2006 as 41 lakh illegal voters were registered in that list according to APW. The third prayer was that a new voters' list be prepared where only Indians can vote for an Indian.

On 8th May 2013, the state and central governments, in their affidavits, said that they will prepare the NRC and delete the names illegal voters.

The second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on Monday with 2.9 crore names out of the total 3.29 crore applicants in Assam. The names of 40.07 lakh applicants did not find a place in the historic document.