Assam: Lawyers bracing up to help people left out of final NRC

A group of Muslim lawyers who are practicing in different courts of Guwahati are preparing themselves to help the people whose names do not appear in the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The final NRC is all set to be published on August 31 next.

While helping people left out of NRC, the lawyers would look for various issues such as mismatch in legacy data codes due to genuine mistake, inconsistency in the names of a person’s ancestors in the electoral rolls among others.The lawyers have still not decided whether they would be providing free service to those filing their appeals before the Foreigner’s Tribunal.

In order to prove a person’s citizenship at a Forigner’s Tribunal, lawyers generally charge Rs 50,000.

The Centre has increased the time limit for filing appeals in Foreign Tribunals (FTs) regarding exclusion from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

The union home ministry has increased the time limit from 60 to 120 days.

A home ministry statement had earlier said that as it may not be possible for all those excluded from final NRC to file the appeal within the prescribed time, MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) will amend the rules to increase the present time limit for filing of appeals in FTs from 60 days to 120 days.

“Every individual, whose name does not figure in the final NRC, can represent his or her case in front of the appellate authority such as Foreigner Tribunals. Under the provisions of Foreigners Act 1946 and Foreigners (Tribunals) Order 1964, only Foreigners Tribunals are empowered to declare a person a foreigner.

“Thus, non-inclusion of a person’s name in the NRC does not by itself amount to him or her being declared as a foreigner,” the statement added.

In order to facilitate the persons excluded from the NRC, adequate number of such tribunals were being established at convenient locations, it said.