SC to hear plea on release of locked NRC biometrics in Assam

The Supreme Court will on Monday hear a petition seeking the release of locked biometrics of over 830,000 people in Assam, whose fingerprints were collected for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Sushmita Dev said she submitted the plea through advocate Tulika Mukherjee last year but it was not immediately listed. “The Supreme Court prefers most important issues while listing the petitions. …This is a serious public issue and we are happy that the court has finally agreed to hear it,” Dev said.

The final draft of NRC was released in July 2018 and excluded four million people. The biometrics of over 2.7 million NRC applicants were collected during the claims and objections phase. Around 1.9 million names were included on the supplementary NRC in August 2019. Aadhaar cards are not being issued to those whose biometrics are locked. As a result, 830,000 applicants have been deprived of it.

In the petition, Dev argued: “While there exists a reasonable basis of classification for release of the biometric details of those persons whose claims and objections have been rejected and their names don’t appear on the NRC. However, people included in the NRC by the Supplementary list cannot be considered as a different class from the person whose names had appeared in the first draft list.”

Dev said Aadhar has been linked with almost all the facilities and now the voter identity cards are getting linked.

Aadhar is not a proof of citizenship. A person residing in the country for 182 days (in the preceding 6 months) is eligible for enrolment for Aadhar. So those whose names are on the supplementary NRC list should not be deprived of Aadhar, Dev argued.

“Denying Aadhar registration to a person whose names appeared on the list released on 31.08.2019 is manifestly arbitrary. There exists no law which bars the grant of Aadhar Number to persons whose names appeared in the Final NRC list and therefore, such an act is not sanctioned by law.”

Assam minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass said they have appealed to the Registrar General of India (RGI) to amend the standard operating procedure (SOP) of NRC so that these 830,000 applicants get Aadhaar.

NRC state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said only the Supreme Court can amend the SOP. Under the present SOP, these people would not get Aadhaar till RGI notifies NRC. “But if the Supreme Court wants to change the SOP, these people will be allowed to get the document.”