Assam NRC: Centre tells Supreme Court it is yet to issue rejection slips to 1.9 million people

Seven years after Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published, the Centre has informed the Supreme Court that the process of issuing rejection slips to the 1.9 million people left off the list has not yet begun.

The delay has left those excluded in a legal limbo. Without these formal rejection documents, which must explain the exact reasons they were left out, they cannot appeal their cases before the state’s 100 quasi-judicial foreigners tribunals.

In an affidavit filed on September 28, the Registrar General of India (RGI) told a Supreme Court bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe that the state NRC coordinator has not yet handed over the final data. The RGI explained that it cannot formally notify the final NRC—a necessary legal step before rejection slips can be issued—until it receives this data.

Why is the NRC data delayed?

The state coordinator is still working on a "security regime" to protect the database, according to the affidavit. This security framework was ordered by the Supreme Court back in August 2019, with instructions to set up safeguards similar to those used for Aadhaar data.

The Supreme Court has adjourned the proceedings to November 6, giving the Assam government time to file its response. The case stems from petitions filed by groups including the Assam State Jamiat Ulama, the All Assam Minority Students Union, and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind. These groups are demanding that rejection slips be issued to the excluded and official NRC cards be distributed to the 31.1 million people whose citizenship was verified.

The long road to citizenship verification

The NRC update, which began in 2015, required applicants to prove they or their ancestors were in Assam before midnight on March 24, 1971—the eve of the Bangladesh Liberation War. When the supplementary list was published on August 31, 2019, exactly 1,906,657 people were left out.

Under the established rules, those excluded have 120 days to challenge the decision once they receive their rejection slips. But without the documents, that clock cannot start, and their lives remain on hold.