What is the NRC?
The citizenship act 1955 provides for compulsory registration of every citizen of India and
issuance of national identity card to him. The citizenship rules 2003 framed under the
citizenship act 1955 prescribe the manner of preparation of national register of citizens.
The only time that a national register of citizens (NRC) was prepared was in 1951 when after
the conduct of the census of 1951 the NRC was prepared by recording particulars of all the
persons enumerated during the census.
All the names appearing in the NRC 1951 or any of the electoral rolls up to midnight of 24th
March 1971 together are called Legacy data.
Thus there will be two requirements for inclusion in updated NRC-
● Existence of a person's name in the pre-1971 period and
● Proving linkage with that person.
Forgetting their names included in the updated NRC, citizens shall have to submit
application forms (family-wise).
Application forms received by the government shall be verified and based on the results of
verification of particulars submitted by the citizens in their application forms, the updated
NRC shall be prepared. However to afford another opportunity to the applicants before the
publication of the final NRC, a draft NRC shall be published after verification of the
application forms and the citizens are given a chance to submit claims, objections,
corrections, etc. After verification of all such claims and objections, the final NRC would be
published.
There is a special provision under the rules to prepare a national register of citizens (NRC) in
Assam which is application based and distinct from the rest of India where the process is
enumeration based.
The objective of NRC in Assam is the identification of unauthorized migrants from
Bangladesh after 24th March 1971 to Assam.
One of the basic criteria for identification was that the names of the family members of the
applicant should be present in the NRC prepared in 1951 or in the electoral rolls up till March
24th, 1971.
A person also can present the following documents as proof of his/her citizenship:
● Birth certificate
● LIC policy
● Land and tenancy records
● Refugee registration certificate
● Citizenship certificate, passport, government-issued certificate/license
● Government employment certificate, educational certificate or court records
The Need for an NRC
The Need for an NRC in Assam
The Assam Agitation and Assam Accord - Due to migrations (Illegal) in Assam during the
50's there originated a fear among the Assami population of losing their cultural identity and
the demography of the state in the minds of its original inhabitants. In the late ‘70s, a lot of
Asami students along with the All Assam Students' Union started a movement called the
Assam Agitation which demanded the deportation of illegal migrants from Assam.
On Independence Day in 1985 the Assam accord was signed between the All Assam
Students' Union and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad and the then Union
Government led by Rajiv Gandhi in order to control the Assam agitation which had turned
violent at that point in time.
The provisions of the accord where that-
● Any foreigner will be given full citizenship including the right to vote if he came to
Assam between 1951 and 1961.
● The foreigner who had migrated between 1961 and 1971 would be given all the
citizenship rights except the right to vote for a period of ten years and those entering
after 1971 would be denied citizenship and deported.
A petition was filed in the supreme court in 2009 by an NGO called Assam Public Works
demanding that illegal Bangladeshis from Assam be identified and deported, and also their
names be removed from the voter's list.
In 2013 an order was passed by the Supreme Court for completion of the NRC update by
December 31st, 2017. The NRC is updated on the basis of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the
Citizenship (registration of citizens and issue of national identity cards) Rules 2003.
The Need for NRC in India
This is the disputed area where it is argued by the current Union Government that there is a
great need for NRC in India because of the immigration of illegal aliens in various different
parts of India, whereas it is argued by the opposition parties that that is certainly not the case
and the government is using this issue to mask other important issues and spread hysteria
among the people.
The other reason given by the government is that it would help in registering the actual
citizens and help deport the illegal immigrants who are responsible for increasing the crime
rate.
The Current Status of the NRC
While proposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill (now an Act) the home minister Amit Shah
in the Rajya Sabha on November 20th said that the process to make a National Register of
Citizens will be carried out nationally and whenever it's done the exercise will be carried
out in Assam, but as of now it 25th December 2019 it hasn't been implemented.
The Flaws With the NRC Implementation in India
● It would be in defiance with the order of the Supreme Court order which clearly
specified the registration process for the state of Assam only and not the whole
country.
● The NRC process was a specific solution to the problem of Assam but extending it
nationwide would simply be impractical and illogical.
● The NRC also presumes an ideal state where each and every legal citizen would
have a proof of his/her citizenship but in a country like India where there is vast
illiteracy and poverty, it is very idyllic of the government to assume that the homeless,
the poor, the landless or the people who lost everything due to natural catastrophes
would be possessing the required documentation.
● The NRC process in itself is flawed since it not only declares the people failing to
provide the relevant documents as illegal immigrants but also the legal citizens who
have some glitches in the documents that they did present. Owing to this flaw only
some 40 lakh people were excluded from the initial list published on 30th July 2018.
This number was later reduced 19.6 lakh in the final list out of which about 11 lakh
were Bengali Hindus.
● Another problem was the impracticality related with the detention and deportation
process, how exactly is the government thinking of detaining lakhs if not crores of
people and if proved illegal immigrants, of deporting them assuming the bilateral ties
between India and Bangladesh are such where the neighbouring country would be
willing of accepting those immigrants.
● It has been 4 months since the list was published but the process of appeal has not
started yet. That is that the cases of those left out of the final NRC will be heard in the
Foreigners' Tribunals, after which applicants can approach the High Court.
● At last, it comes to the economics of it all, the cabinet committee on economic affairs
chaired by PM Modi has approved the revived cost estimates of a scheme of
updation of NRC in Assam at a cost of 1220.93 crore rupees up to 31/12/18. Amidst
the economic slowdown that the country is facing it beyond reasonable logic that the
government would be willing to spend possibly 30 folds of the above-mentioned cost
on NRC.
Shubhang Shukla
B.A.LL.B.
2019-24
Law School
Banaras Hindu University
Email- shubhangshukla21@gmail.com
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