Supreme Court issues notice to Election Commission, Central government over petition seeking NRC list to be updated for Tripura

Months after Assam government released its second and final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Supreme Court has issued notice to Central government and Election Commission over petition seeking NRC list to be updated for Tripura. The petition before the top court sought fencing the Bangladesh-Tripura border.

The petition has also asked for deportation of illegal immigrants from Tripura.

In a big move against illegal immigration, the Assam government released the second and final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30, 2018.  As per the exercise, which was directly monitored by the Supreme Court, those who have entered Assam after March 24, 1971, will be viewed as illegal immigrants.

READ | Assam Government Releases Final Draft List Of National Register Of Citizens In The State, 40 Lakh Names Struck Off From The List

2,89, 83,677 persons were found eligible out of 3,29,91,384 applicants in the second draft of the NRC while names of 4,007,707 people were not included in the final Draft NRC.

The Assam NRC had caused a massive storm following a political slugfest around it, claiming that the final draft left even eligible Indians out of the list.

Responding to the speculation, Home Minister Rajnath Singh recently assured the countrymen that no Indians will be excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Highlighting the importance of NRC, Singh said the NRC was necessary to identify Indian citizens and weed out illegal immigrants.

"I want to say that no genuine Indian will be excluded from the NRC. It is absolutely necessary to know who are Indians and who are foreigners,” said Singh as he asserted that the update of the NRC, a list of Assam’s citizens, was carried out under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court.

READ | 'No Indian Will Be Excluded From NRC,' Assures Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh

Earlier on July 30, following the release of second and final draft list by the Assam Government, the Union Home Minister had said that the NRC exercise was fully transparent and "unnecessary fear-mongering is being done by those who are opposing the NCR draft."