Outburst from Bench came as soon as the Attorney General urged the court to keep the ongoing NRC work NRC in abeyance during Lok Sabha polls.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday accused the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of attempting to “destroy the Assam NRC [National Register of Citizens] process from the very beginning.”

The outburst from a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Nariman came as soon as Attorney General K.K. Venugopal urged the court to keep the ongoing work on the NRC in abeyance during the Lok Sabha polls.

The Attorney General explained that 167 combined armed police companies, currently involved in the NRC work, need to be pulled out of Assam and stationed across the country for poll work.

Mr. Venugopal said around 2,700 companies were needed across the country to maintain law and order. Besides, this election is anticipated to be evoke an “highly surcharged atmosphere”. Conducting the NRC work simultaneously would prove difficult, he contended.

“We have noticed this from the Ministry of Home Affairs — you do not want the NRC work to carry on at any cost. For that you are coming up with all kinds of excuses... All your efforts have been from the beginning to destroy the NRC process,” Chief Justice Gogoi lashed out in response.

The Chief Justice addressed the government, saying: “if you want the NRC work to go on, there are a thousand and one ways for the Government of India to do it... Do you want us to call the Union Home Secretary here?

“You have 3,000 combined armed police companies. You need 2,700 companies for the election. NRC work requires 167 companies. So what is the problem?

Mr. Venugopal replied, “We need to protect the borders also. Security of the country is involved. This is a real problem... Security of India is involved.” The government was prepared to file an affidavit to this effect.

“Is it too much to ask for the polls and the NRC work to go on simultaneously and peacefully? Chief Justice asked Mr. Venugopal.

Mr. Venugopal replied with a question, asking “is it such a change to ask for two weeks?”

The Ministry initially wanted the NRC work to be suspended for three weeks from the last date of filing nominations to the polling date, but later came down to two weeks.

Court desists from passing any orders

Finally, the court desisted from passing any orders on the government plea to suspend the NRC work during election time.

''At this stage, we are not inclined to pass any orders,'' the court observed in its order even as it continued to stand firm by its decision that the NRC work should finish by July 31, 2019.