Summary
In the ongoing Assam NRC exercise, the Court declined to reopen the completed process on newly proposed citizenship-by-birth parameters. It permitted specified treatment of descendants depending on birth date and parental status, subject to pending Constitution Bench orders. Further directions governed data security, publication of inclusion and exclusion lists, and treatment of IMDT orders. The order did not finally decide the constitutional questions concerning sections 3 and 6A.
Issues
- Whether the NRC exercise should be reopened on citizenship-by-birth parameters.
- How specified descendant cases, data security and publication should be handled pending Constitution Bench consideration.
Provisions considered
- Rule 4A and Schedule, paragraphs 2–3, Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003The special Assam procedure and legacy-document framework supplied the basis of the exercise, which would not be reopened on different proposed parameters. (¶ 7–15)
Held
- The special Assam framework related claims to the 1951 NRC, electoral rolls up to 24 March 1971 and accepted additional documents. Original inhabitants and citizens who migrated from elsewhere in India were addressed by the earlier clarifications reproduced in the order. (¶ 7–14)
- The completed exercise would not be reopened on the intervenors’ suggested section 3(1)(a) parameters. Questions concerning sections 3 and 6A remained before Constitution Benches, and updating remained subject to their orders. (¶¶ 4, 7, 15, 18)
- The Coordinator could act on paragraph 7(b): before 3 December 2004, an eligible clear legacy parent could support inclusion despite the other parent’s doubtful-voter, declared-foreigner or pending-case status. Under paragraph 7(c), for births on or after that date, such status of either parent barred inclusion. Permission was subject to the pending Bench’s orders; issues could be examined in Tribunal appeals. (¶¶ 1, 5)
- An NRC data-security regime analogous to Aadhaar security was to precede disclosure to the governments and Registrar General. Supplementary inclusions were to be published in hard copy at specified offices; exclusions scheduled for 31 August 2019 were to be published online only, family-wise. (¶ 16)
- Treatment of IMDT orders was directed to follow Anowar Ali v. State of Assam, without an independent restatement of that decision’s rule. (¶ 17)
Result
Directions issued for NRC updating, descendant cases, data security and publication, subject to orders in pending Constitution Bench matters. Request to reopen the exercise on the proposed birth-based parameters rejected.