NRC- THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF CITIZENS OF INDIA.

This bill has made Assam as war zone. so, let’s study what is NRC ?.

ABOUT NRC

It is a register maintained by the Government of India containing names & certain relevant information for the identification of Indian citizens of the Assam state. One special thing is that this particular bill was initially made for Assam state. but on 20th November 2019 hon. home minister Amit shah Ji declared in parliament that the register will be extended to the whole country.

However, due to an amendment carried out in the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, the State Register of Citizens for the state of Assam, which forms a part of the National Register of Citizens has also been held to be legal to contain the names of all persons, whose names appeared at least in any of the Electoral Rolls published for any of the then assembly constituencies within the territorial limits of the present-day state of Assam up to midnight of 24 March 1971 and also of descendants of such persons presently having permanent residence within the state. A person residing in the present state of Assam is also eligible to get his or her name entered in the register if he or she holds and submit to the registering authority any of certain specific documents issued up to midnight of 24 March 1971 against his or her name or in the names of his or her ancestor which would prove the holder's or ancestor's presence within the territorial limits of the present-day state of Assam. The people migrated from other country like Bangladesh in the present Assam state and don’t have any ancestral blood in past Assam state will not be a citizen of India.

The process of updating of state's part of NRC in the state of Assam started in the the year 2013 when the Supreme Court of India passed an order for its updating. Since then, the Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Fali Nariman has been monitoring it continuously. The entire process is conducted by Mr. Prateek Hajela, an officer from the Indian Administrative Service cadre, who has been designated as the State Coordinator of National Registration, Assam and is carried out under the monitoring of the Supreme Court of India which has been holding time to time hearing on representations made to it by various interested parties. It’s been very long as it was started in 2013 and now 2019 is ending (6 years and 11 months).

THE PURPOSE OF NRC

The purpose of this bill is to identify illegal migrants who entered Assam after midnight of 24th March 1971. On 3rd September 2019 the BNP ( Bangladesh nationalist party), which is the major opposition party in Bangladesh, told that the people excluded in NRC in Assam might be sent back to Bangladesh.

WHEN THEY ENTERED INDIA

During 19th and 20th centuries, Colonial Assam (1826–1947) witnessed intermittent migration of populace from rest of the provinces of British India in the aftermath of the Yandabo treaty (signed on 24 February 1826) which brought the the region under the control of the British. The liberal attitude of the Colonial authorities encouraged the migration of peasants from Bengal to Assam in search of fertile lands.

Probably the most important event in the province during the last 25 years- an event, moreover, which seems likely to alter permanently the whole feature of Assam and to destroy the whole structure of Assamese culture and civilization has been the invasion of a vast a horde of land-hungry immigrants.

This migration surged, especially that of Hindu Bengali people, from East Pakistan after India's independence & subsequent partition into two separate countries namely the secular India & Muslim dominated Pakistan. Following the Partition of India, Pakistan consisted of two isolated landmasses, Pakistan to the west of India and East Pakistan, to the East.

East Pakistan suffered from political problems, finally, it led to civil war and separation of east Pakistan from Pakistan. and a new country was born named Bangladesh. Because of the civil war, many people moved from Bangladesh to the Indian side and most of they never returned.

Following Partition and communal riots in the subcontinent, Assam initially saw an influx of refugees and other migrants from East Pakistan. The number of such migrants other than refugees was initially reported by the State Government to be between 1,50,000 and 2,00,000 but later estimated to be around 5,00,000.

              BNP

NRC FIRST STARTED

After civil war was ended, but illegal migration was never stopped.  The Government of India already had in its stock of statutes, the Immigrants  Act, 1950. This act came into effect from 1 March 1950 which mandated expulsion of illegal immigrants from the state of Assam. To identify illegal immigrants, the National Register of Citizens was prepared for the first time in Assam during the conduct of the 1951 Census. It was carried out under a directive of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) by recording particulars of every single person enumerated during that Census. Practical implementation of the act was difficult & the measures taken under this act proved ineffective largely due to the vast stretch of the open border between the countries.

In the year 1965, the government of India took up with the government of Assam to expedite completion of the National Register of Citizens and to issue National Identity Cards based on this register to Indian citizens towards the identification of illegal immigrants. But in 1966 the Central Government dropped the proposal to issue identity cards in consultation with the Government of Assam, having found the project impracticable.

In a notification issued by the Government of India in the year 1976, the State government was instructed not to deport persons coming from Bangladesh to India before March 1971.

Thus between 1948 and 1971, there were large scale migrations from Bangladesh to Assam. which was the main reason for such huge immigrants in Assam.

OPPOSING ILLEGAL MIGRATION

Suddenly a group of student leaders in 1979 came out in fierce protest demanding detention, disenfranchisement and deportation of illegal immigrants from Assam. They cited unexplained surge of electors in the voter lists for the assembly constituencies in certain pockets of the state, especially in those under then undivided Darrang District of Assam & elsewhere in the districts of lower & central Assam, for which they suspected large scale entry of names of foreigners or illegal migrants in those lists. The events quickly developed into a mass movement which came to be known as Assam Agitation or Assam Movement led by All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) and lasted 6 years. Reportedly considered by various intellectuals and media forums as one of the largest mass movement in the history of the world led by students’ union, this six-year-long agitation left behind thousands of bleeding hearts, empty wombs, and bloodstained fields. then the memorandum of settlement ( MoS) was signed between the agitating parties and the union of India on 15th august 1985 in the leadership of the hon. prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi.

ROLE OF SUPREME COURT OF INDIA.

When it was first implemented the process of detecting and expelling immigrants suffered from teething problems for a considerable amount of time. In fact, the first attempt of systematically detecting foreigners by updating the National Register in Assam was through a Pilot Project which was started in 2 circles, one in Kamrup district and another in Barpeta district in the year 2010, which had to be aborted within 4 weeks amidst a huge law and order problem involving a mob attack on the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Barpeta that resulted in police firing killing 4 persons. For a long time, since the bitter experience in the pilot project, NRC update was considered almost an impossible task by the government agencies.

The case was finally taken up in the hands of the supreme court of India in the year 2013 in regards to two writ petitions filed by Assam Public Works and Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha & Ors. wherein the Supreme Court, headed by the bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman mandated the Union Government and the State Government to complete the updation of NRC, under Citizenship Act, 1955 and Citizenship Rules, 2003, in all parts of Assam.

Since then, the Supreme Court of India has been closely monitoring the process and holding regular hearings on representations made to it by various interested parties & stakeholders.

To make the process of NRC update smooth, the Supreme Court in its order dated 21 July 2015 passed the following directions:

We make it clear that complaints concerning any obstruction in the matter of preparation/update of NRC by any person or authority may first be brought to the notice of the Court-appointed Committee and the said Committee, upon due inquiry, will submit necessary report to the Registry of this Court where after the same will be brought to notice of the Bench.

We expect all authorities to act faithfully and diligently to carry out their assigned tasks to ensure smooth preparation of NRC and publication thereof within the schedule fixed by us. This is in reiteration of the mandate contained in Article 144 of the Constitution of India. We don't need to emphasize that any person found to be creating any obstruction or hindrance, in any manner, in the preparation of the NRC would be subjected to such orders as this Court would pass in such eventualities.

About Article 144 of the Constitution of India, all authorities, civil and judicial, in the territory of India shall act in aid of the Supreme Court. Article 142 of the Constitution of India further stipulates that the Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, and any decree so passed or order so made shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India in such manner as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, in such manner as the President may by order prescribe and subject to the provisions of any law made in this behalf by Parliament, the Supreme Court shall, as respects the the whole of the territory of India, have all and every power to make an order for the purpose of securing the attendance of any person, the discovery or production of any documents, or the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself.

FINAL PUBLICATION OF NRC,

The Final NRC has been published on 31 August 2019 after completion of all the statutory works as per various standard operating procedures. As per a press release by the SCNRC, a total of 3,30,27,661 persons applied to the registering authority through 68,37,660 application forms and out of which 3,11,21,004 persons were found eligible for inclusion of their names in the final NRC leaving out 19,06,657 persons, who were not included and shall have to approach a Foreigners' Tribunal with an appeal against non-inclusion if they so desire.

As soon as the final NRC was published on 31 August 2019 at 10 AM on completion of the updating the NRC,1951 at all the local, tehsil & district level offices created for the purpose, controversy regarding its correctness set in and even some lawmakers openly came out criticizing the document.

A sitting M.L.A of Assam belonging to the political party All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) representing the Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency of Abhyapuri South in lower Assam, having found himself out of the NRC, reportedly expressed that thousands of genuine Indians, especially Bengali Hindus, have been left out of final NRC, and as many illegal foreigners have made it into the final list. It’s very funny because an illegal migrant is the sitting MLA of Assam what was the previous government did. The Assam Public Works (APW), the original petitioner in the Supreme Court which led to the updation of the National Register of Citizens six years ago, said the final NRC turned out to be a 'flawed document' because its prayer for the re-verification of the draft, the list was rejected by the apex court. The NGO also wondered whether the software used in the updation exercise was capable of handle so much data.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR FINAL NRC.

Who are eligible for updated or final NRC?

·      -Persons whose names appear in NRC, 1972.

·      -Persons whose names appear in any of the Electoral Rolls up to 24 March (midnight), 1971.

·      -Descendants of the above persons.

·      -Persons who came to Assam on or after 1 January 1966 but before 25 March 1971 and registered themselves under the rules made by the Central Government with the Foreigners Registration Regional Officer (FRRO) and who have not been declared as illegal migrants or foreigners by the competent authority.

·      -Original People inhabitants of Assam and their children and descendants who are citizens of India provided their citizenship is ascertained beyond a reasonable doubt by the registering authority

·      -D voters can apply for inclusion of their names in the updated NRC. However, their names will be finally included only when the appropriate Foreigner Tribunal declares them as non-foreigners.

·      -Persons who can provide any one of the documents issued up to midnight of 24 March 1971 as mentioned in the list of documents admissible for citizenship.

·      -All Indian Citizens including their children and descendants who have moved to Assam post 24 March 1971 would be eligible for inclusion in the updated NRC on adducing satisfactory proof of residence in any part of the country as on 24 March 1971.

·      -All members of the Tea Tribes shall be covered under ‘Original inhabitants of Assam’ category provided for under Clause 3(3) of the Schedule of The Citizenship Rules, 2003.

·      -All such original inhabitants shall be included based on proof to the satisfaction of the Registering Authority. On the establishment of the citizenship of such persons beyond a reasonable doubt, their names shall be in the updated NRC.

This is the full expiation of the NRC bill; I hope you understood the bill. I think this topic is very important and I also think that a particular topic may be asked in public exams conducted by state or central government. Some of the data were taken from the internet and others were taken from newspapers.

Hope you understood the topic.

Thank for reading, the next blog will be written in section 371.