SC to Hear NRC Case on January 6

The Supreme Court will hear the National Register of Citizens'(NRC) on January 6 to decide the future course of action and the authoritiesare preparing a status report of the work done so far to be submitted to the RegistrarGeneral of India (RGI).

The new NRC Coordinator, Hitesh Dev Sarma said that the priorityright now is to prepare a status report for the RGI on the work that has beendone till now.

Although the final NRC was published on August 31 which excluded19 lakh people, the rejection order has not been issued even after five months.The excluded people will be able to file appeals against their exclusion at theForeigners' Tribunals only with the rejection order specifying the cause ofrejection. Replying to this, Sarma said, "The work will proceed according todirections of the Supreme Court in the next hearing."

However, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on December 23 said that the state government's plea for re-verification of the names included in NRC is with the Supreme Court along with several petitions filed by organizations such as All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and Assam Public Works (APW).

"The next hearing of the case is on January 6. Whatever the SCsays on that day, we will work according to that," NRC coordinator Sarma said.