Centre submits SOP for disposal of claims and objections in NRC updation

The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the list of eligible documents for legacy and linkage will remain the same as the time of the initial application.

The Centre today submitted a 19-page Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for disposal of claims and objections in the updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

According to the SOP, the process of informing public about non inclusion will start on August 10, capacity building of public making available blank claims and objection forms will begin on August 20, while receipt of claims and objections from public will take place between August 30 to October 28. Digitization and processing of form will be undertaken between September 15 to November 20.

Issue and Delivery of Notice will start on November 20 and end on November 30. While conduct of hearing will start from December 15.

The Centre has said that the various organisations have made representations that adequate time period of at least three to four month be provided for the filing the claims and objections. It had been initially proposed that the process of claims and objections will happen from August 30 to September 28.

However, it would be reasonable to give at least two months time for receiving claims and objections. The time-lines have been drawn accordingly. Timeline based on assumption that 2500 Class-I officers will be deployed by the State Government and five hearings per days will take place. The hearing will commence from December 15 and the time-line for their disposal can only be firmed up once the actual number of claims and objection received is known.

The Centre has made it clear that there will be no need to re-submit the documents already submitted by persons at the time of original application. They may, however, submit additional admissible documents, if considered necessary by them in support of their claim.