NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the time for publication of Assam National Register of Citizens till August 31. However, the top court rejected the joint plea of Centre and Assam for re-verification of 20% of draft NRC data to eliminate large scale inclusion of illegal migrants.

Both the Centre and the Assam government had sought extension of the July 31 deadline to finalise the National Register of Citizens and to verify wrongful inclusions and exclusions. " India cannot be the refugee capital of the world ," the solicitor general had said in the court seeking more time for the process.

The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman which perused the reports filed by the Assam NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela.

The Centre and the Assam government's stand were advanced by Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, respectively.

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.

Assam, which had faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC which was first prepared in 1951.



In Video: Supreme Court extends Assam NRC deadline to August 31