UNDERSTANDING NRC AND ITS APPLICATION IN ASSAM

National Register for Citizens is a list of all the names of the bona fide Indian citizens. National
Register for Citizens came into force in order to check and address the issue of illegal
immigrants from neighboring regions especially from Bangladesh.

MOTIVE BEHIND IMPLEMENTING NRC

The purpose of NRC update in the state of Assam is to identify Indian citizens from among all
the present residents of the state thereby leading to identification of illegal migrants residing in
that state, who entered into it after the midnight of 24 March 1971. However the fate of those
who would not be able to get his or her name entered in the register is now a matter under
judicial and legislative consideration and more or less uncertain.

The NRC is updated as per the provisions The Citizenship Act, 1955 and The Citizenship Rules,
2003. On the touchstone of Section 6-A1

METHODOLOGY OF IMPLEMENTING NRC

The NRC is updated as per the provisions The Citizenship Act, 1955 and The Citizenship Rules,
2003. On the touchstone of Section 6-A2

Who are eligible for inclusion in the updated NRC?

 Persons whose names appear in NRC, 1972

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

 Persons who came to Assam on or after 1 January 1966 but before 25 March 1971 and
registered themselves in accordance with 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.

1
Section 6-A of the Citizenship Act, 1955
2
Section 6-A of the Citizenship Act, 1955
 People who are original 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.

 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 (outside Assam) as on 24 March 1971.

Thus, it becomes evident that Section 6-A did not merely grant refugee status to those who were
illegal migrants, but went on to grant them the benefit of Indian citizenship. All persons who had
migrated to Assam before 1966 and before 25.03.1971 were to become citizens of India either
immediately or after a period of ten years (once there has been a determination that they have in
fact settled in India between 1966 and 1971).

This is a peculiar situation in which any person, who has entered into the territorial limits of the
present day state of Assam up to the midnight of 24 March 1971 from the neighbouring country
Bangladesh, or any of the person's descendant, can claim to be an Indian citizen of the state of
Assam throughout India by dint of presence of his or her own self or of ancestor's, within the
territorial limits of the present day state of Assam only but no other Indian states for that matter.

ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION OF NRC

Advantages
 India has already become a resource-scarce country. We are unable to deliver the basic
necessities to the genuine Indian citizens, and a large number of additional immigrants
will further worsen the conditions. The efficient NRC will help us in identifying the
illegal immigrants and some steps can be taken for their deportation.

 Curbing their voting rights can be beneficial to us. As it will avoid the illegal immigrants
from swinging elections in favour of those who promise them legitimacy.
  Will send a strong message that illegal immigrants are not welcome here.3

Disadvantages
 The present process lacks impartiality, transparency and equality. Updating or
maintaining an NRC with such a huge population and that too people with less income
and low literacy is a very tedious task. And all efforts should be made to minimize
injustice to anyone.

 The NRC body and the Foreign Tribunals in Assam are functioning behind the curtains
and its functioning is clearly signalling towards ruling party’s agenda of getting rid of
Minorities. Earlier retired judges were carefully selected for Foreign Tribunals but now
any lawyer who is above 50 on 25 April 2015 and has 10 years of experience can
volunteer for FT and gets a seat. Various online sources have reported that the FT is full
of people sharing ruling party’s ideology and are asked to perform well.

 This ‘performance pressure’ has led to bad justice. People are tired of showing their
documents, proving their identities but the FT is never satisfied. Minor clerical mistakes
have resulted in the listing of Indian citizens as Foreigners. At times FT has gone beyond
scope of its power and ordered arrest, detention, revoked ration cards etc. thus, troubling
a poor Indian.

 With the faltering mechanism, these already poor and helpless genuine Indians will lose
their right to work, to healthcare and education, and housing.4

1. The NRC process that was carried out in Assam was highly flawed. The cutoff date
there was fixed at March, 1971 due to the stipulations under the historical Assam
Accord. Millions of poor people, especially the poor had to bet their lifetime savings, in
procuring the requisite documentations. Yet, many were left out of the process.
2. Some detention centres have already built, and more are likely to be built to house
the millions set to be displaced. This problem has been compounded by the fact that
Bangladesh has on the whole, denied its role in any outward illegal migration, so
could be reluctant to ‘take back’ its people.

3
"Must Read: NRC For India— A Paradigm Shift from Vote Bank Politics to "India for Indians" - The Fearless
Indian". The Fearless Indian. 14 August 2018. 
4
Angshuman Choudhury and Jonmani Das, Citizenship Amendment Bill fails to address key questions on Section 6A
of existing Act, sidelines Assam Accord, available at <https://www.firstpost.com/india/citizenship-amendment-bill-
fails-to-address-key-questions-on-section-6a-of-existing-act-sidelines-assam-accord-5961481.html>.
Challenges

In the present system of NRC updation many Indian citizen residing in Assam do not have any of
the listed documents to produce for enlisting names in the NRC. Even many Assamese people
were living outside Assam between 1951 to1971 and thus their names are not available in any of
the documents. Their descendants are now facing problems in the process of NRC updation. In
spite of all these controversies the works of NRC updation is going on. Government is seemed to
be determined in completing the task.

CRITICISM

People fear that they might become stateless if their names are not included in the list. What is
worrying is that is there has been no specific policy in ascertaining their fate. The possibility of
deportation to Bangladesh is very bleak as the people excluded from the list should be proven
citizens of Bangladesh, and that will require cooperation from that country.

SUPREME COURT’S VIEW ON THE CURRENT ISSUE

In December 2014, the Supreme Court set a deadline for the updating of Assam’s National
Register of Citizens. The court took on the responsibility of monitoring the process, which aims
to produce a list of genuine Indian citizens living in Assam.

Section 6A is a provision in India’s citizenship law specific to Assam. Assamese nationalists

have argued that it diluted the citizenship rights of communities defined as indigenous to the
state.

The Supreme Court Division Bench vide its judgment dated December 17, 2014, framed thirteen
substantial questions. Out of these, two questions are of particular interest:

“(i) Whether Section 6A violates Article 355? It shall be the duty of the Union to protect
every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the
government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of
this Constitution.

(ii) Whether Section 6A violates the basic premise of the Constitution and the Citizenship Act in
that it permits Citizens who have allegedly not lost their Citizenship of East Pakistan to become
deemed Citizens of India, thereby conferring dual Citizenship to such persons?”

Following the framing of these substantial questions as to the interpretation of the Constitution,
the case will now be considered by a Constitution Bench.

In view of the above, the author departs from the present Article by alluding to the fact that
notwithstanding the current political perception, the ultimate task lies before the Constitution
Bench to determine the constitutionality of Section 6-A, which in the author’s opinion shall
ascertain the fate of the illegal migrants who have enjoyed dual citizenship in India without
taking the oath of allegiance to the Indian Constitution. 

CONCLUSION

The updation of NRC is essentially required to ensure that the cultural and ethnic integrity of
Assam is restored and the Assamese people can access and utilize the resources that are
rightfully theirs. However, it will also be important to find a via-media to safeguard the human
rights of thousands of migrants who will become illegal citizens or perhaps stateless, in many
cases because their ancestors had illegally migrated.

The entire logic behind creating a National register of citizens to weed out illegal immigrants is
deeply flawed. The process is tedious and almost arbitrary. It is practically impossible to cross
verify all the data that needs to reference. Additionally, corruption is a huge part of this process.
As mentioned above, two officials were arrested for taking bribes for in return for guaranteeing
citizenship. This itself defeats the entire process. Finally, what will become of the people who
have been living in the state of Assam for many years, but now have been declared foreigners?
Are they to be now termed refugees? This is indeed a thought that the government should ponder
and revisit our citizenship laws.