1951 to 2019: The ups and downs in the publication of NRC

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Updated: Jun 23, 2020 23:12 IST

The final National Register of Citizens (NRC), which will identify the bonafide citizens of Assam, is scheduled to be declared on Saturday.

NRC is the result of a years-long agitation by residents of Assam demanding the expulsion of the immigrants from Bangladesh across the border. The process to update the register began following a Supreme Court order in 2013, with the state’s nearly 33 million people having to prove that they were Indian nationals prior to March 24, 1971.

A draft of the NRC left out 4.1 million from among these applicants – the final list has been ordered to be disclosed on August 31.

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Here are the key events leading up to the publication of the final NRC list:

1951: National Register of Citizens (NRC) prepared for Assam based on data of Independent India’s first census conducted the same year.

December 30, 1955: Citizenship Act, 1955, which details how one can become Indian citizen based on birth, descent and registration, comes into force.

1971: War in Bangladesh leads to a sudden rise in the influx of Bangladeshis to India

1979-1985: Six-year long agitation against foreigners in Assam spearheaded by All Assam Students Union (AASU).

December 12, 1983: Parliament passes Illegal Migrants (Detection by Tribunals) Act to stop the flow of illegal immigrants to Assam.

August 15, 1985: Signing of Assam Accord that stipulated foreigners who came to Assam after March 25, 1971, will be detected, deleted from electoral rolls and deported.

2003: Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Act comes into force. Both this and the Citizenship Act, 1955 are being followed to update the 1951 NRC.

July 2005: The Supreme Court strikes down IM (DT) Act, 1983. Foreigners in Assam would now be detected under provisions of Foreigners Act, 1946 and Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964.

2013: Acting on petitions, the Supreme Court calls for updation of NRC. The process begins in 2015 and is monitored by SC.

December 31, 2017: Part publication of draft NRC. Only 19 million of the total 32.9 million applicants included in the list.

July 30, 2018: Complete draft of NRC released. Names of 4 million applicants missing from the list.

June 26, 2019: Additional draft exclusions list released. Names of another 100,000 applicants excluded from NRC. The total number of exclusions increase to 4.1 million.

August 31, 2019: Final NRC to be released. To contain supplementary lists on status of applicants excluded from the complete draft, those included in the exclusions list of June, those who faced objections to their inclusion in earlier drafts and those who were called for hearings recently despite having names in earlier lists.