Lakhs of people wrongfully included in NRC though they are illegal immigrants, SG Tushar Mehta

Alleging wrongful inclusions and exclusions in the National Register of Citizens, the Centre and the Assam government on Friday sought from the Supreme Court extension of the July 31 deadline for finalisation of the NRC.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman took note of the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the state government, that they be allowed to undertake verification of 20 per cent random samples of citizens for wrongful inclusions or exclusions in the NRC.

“Please extend the deadline for publication of final Assam NRC from July 31 to a future date. There is a growing perception that many exclusions and many more inclusions have been made wrongly,” the solicitor general said. “India cannot be the refugee capital of the world.”

The NRC Co-ordinator also sought an extension of time for the process. He informed the Court that the floods in Assam have affected the process, though most of the public engagement is over.

The Centre’s plea has also sought to suitably modify the timeline fixed for publication of the final list of NRC from July 31 to a future date.

The plea claims that names of Indian citizens were excluded and illegal Bangladeshi migrants were included in the draft.

The first draft of the NRC for Assam was published on the intervening night of December 31, 2017 and January 1, 2018 in accordance with the top court’s direction. Names of 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated then.