Assam NRC draft: Supreme Court denies report copy to Centre

The Supreme Court refused to provide a copy of the full report of Assam NRC Co-ordinator Prateek Hajela to the Union government on Wednesday. The reports has the details on what excluded citizens could offer as proof of ancestry.

Replying back to the Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal plea, Justice Ranjan Gogoi replied, “You may be interested, but we have to balance it. The court has called for the report, now it is the discretion of the court to give it to you or not. First you respond to this suggestion (of Mr. Hajela that excluded citizens be allowed to produce additional documents to prove their legacy), then we will see about it.”

Justice Gogoi stated, as reported in The Hindu, “The Attorney General has sought a copy of the co-ordinator’s report. We are of the view that what has been set out in the order (of the court) would be sufficient for the Union of India, stakeholders to indicate their views on it.” He was replying back to the Venugopal’s plea in which he had submitted to get a copy of the report.

Earlier, the Supreme Court in its hearing on August 28 had noted how the ouster of 40 lakh people in the draft NRC raised “human problems of a huge magnitude.”

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