Rejection Slips for 1.9 Million Excluded from Assam NRC Yet to Be Issued

The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that rejection slips for around 19.07 lakh people excluded from Assam’s final National Register of Citizens (NRC) have not been issued because the final list has not been formally notified. According to an affidavit filed by the Registrar General of India, the Assam NRC coordinator is still developing a security mechanism to preserve the data, which has yet to be handed over to the Registrar General.

The Supreme Court had earlier directed the authorities to establish a mechanism for issuing rejection slips so excluded applicants could challenge their exclusion before Foreigners Tribunals. The court has deferred the matter until November 6 after the Assam government sought additional time to file its response. The final NRC, published in August 2019, included 3.11 crore applicants and excluded 19.07 lakh people.