- The Supreme court has questioned the plea made jointly by the Centre and Assam to extend the deadline for publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) from July 31 in order to conduct a sample reverification process.
- The Centre and Assam government had sought a 20 % sample re-verification of names included in the final draft of the NRC in the districts bordering Bangladesh and a 10% sample re-verification in the remaining districts.
- The rationale behind the sample reverification is to identify illegal immigrants who may have been included in NRC list, especially in the districts bordering Bangladesh.
- The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register which contains the name of all citizens of India residing in Assam. It was first prepared in 1951.
- Currently, the NRC is being updated in Assam to address the issue of illegal migrants. It seeks to identify illegal migrants in Assam who had entered the state on or after 25th March 1971.
- The update is being carried out under the Citizenship Act, 1955, and according to rules framed in the Assam Accord, 1985.
- The draft Assam NRC was published on July 30, 2018 in which the names of 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore people were included.
