Assam NRC: Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Response In Plea Seeking Commencement of Appeal Process For Excluded Persons

The Supreme Court has sought response from the Centre in a petition seeking the commencement of the appeals process for those excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) published in Assam.

The plea filed by the Assam State Jamiat Ulama was hearing by a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi.

"For those who have been excluded, there is a provision for appeal but nothing is happening," counsel for the petitioner told the bench. "Issue notice," the bench said and tagged the plea with a similar pending petition.

The updated final NRC, which validates bonafide Indian citizens of Assam, was released on August 31, 2019. The exercise shut out the citizenship claims of over 19 lakh applicants. A total of 3,30,27,661 (3.3 crore) people had applied to be included in the NRC. Of them, 3,11,21,004 (3.1 crore) were included in the document and 19,06,657 (19.06 lakh) excluded.

Assam State Jamiat Ulama has sought a direction to the concerned authorities to forthwith issue national identity cards under Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 read with Rule 13 of the 2003 Rules to all persons found included in the final NRC published in Assam. It has also sought a direction to authorities to initiate an appeal process for the persons excluded from final NRC published in Assam.

The Supreme Court of India in 2024 by a 4:1 majority had upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act. "Section 6A was included to reduce the influx of migrants into Assam..Parliament has treated migration into Assam as a cause of concern even before the Citizenship Amendment Act, 1955..", former CJI DY Chandrachud had read out in court.

Court had further said Section 6A is neither UNDERINCLUSIVE nor OVERINCLUSIVE and it is the duty of the Union to safeguard states against external aggression. The Union government had claimed before the Supreme Court that illegal migrants entered into the country through Assam and other states without valid travel documents in a clandestine and surreptitious manner, so it is not possible to collect accurate data of such people.

Section 6A is a special provision on the citizenship of persons covered by the Assam Accord and provides that the people who entered India between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, and have been living in Assam, would be allowed to register themselves as citizens of India. Calling out this provision to be discriminatory, a direction was sought to the concerned authority to update the NRC based on the details incorporated in the NRC prepared in 1951 as opposed to updating the same by taking account of the electoral rolls prior to March 24, 1971.

Case Title: ASSAM STATE JAMIAT ULAMA Vs UNION OF INDIA

Bench: CJI Kant, Justice Bagchi and Justice Pancholi

Hearing Date: July 21, 2026