The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up Government of Assam and India for adopting delaying tactics in updating the National Register of Indian Citizen (NRIC), even as the State Government for the first time gave a timeline of three years and two months for completing the updating process. A Division Bench of Justice HL Gokhale and Justice Ranjan Gogoi hearing the Writ Petition filed by Assam Public Works (APW), which was clubbed with the petition filed by Sanmilita Maha Sangha and in which All Assam Students Union (AASU) is a respondent, fixed August 23, as the next date of hearing. Talking to this newspaper, president of APW, Abhijeet Sarma said that counsel for the Government of Assam informed the Court it needs three years two months time to update a NRIC in one single Legislative Assembly Constituency. It projected that the same number of years would be needed for updating NRIC in all the 126 Assembly constituencies. In the last date of hearing on July 16, the Supreme Court had asked the Government to submit a revised time-frame for updating NRIC. The Apex Court, however, took serious note of Government of India’s inability to furnish the modalities for updating NRIC. The Bench remarked that it was strange that Government of India is not ready with the modalities, while Government of Assam claims that it had submitted the modalities on January 2. The Counsel for the Central Government had sought three months times to furnish the modalities. But the Court rejected its plea, directing both the Centre and the State Government to sit together and finalise a revised time schedule to complete the updating process. The Court also noted that the Assam Accord was signed in 1985 and even after lapse of so many years, the government has done nothing, while the people continued to suffer. The Court expressed the apprehension that it may become never ending game, said Sarma. The Apex Court also wondered why the Government of India was taking so much to finalise the modalities, particularly when the same political party is in power both in Assam as well as in the Centre. The Court wondered what is the problem of Government of India, wondering why it had not taken the matter seriously. The Apex Court further observed that the updating of the NRIC was not the end but just a step. Meanwhile, the Advisor of AASU, Samujjal Bhattacharya said that it was unfortunate that the Centre is yet to finalise the modalities for updating of NRIC, prepared by Government of Assam in consultation with AASU. The Government of India should not adopt delaying tactics, he said. The work of updating the NRIC should be taken up on a war footing and the entire process should be completed as soon as possible, he said. The Writ Petition filed by APW had called for Implementation of two vital clauses of the Assam Accord’ 1985 including identification and regularisation of the pre 25th March 1971 Bangladeshis along with their descendents as Indian Citizens, identification of the post March 24 1971 Bangladeshis as foreigners. Meanwhile Assam Jamiat and Muslim Parishad filed a petition before the bench urging them to make a party to it.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 20:52:38 +0000
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