No Aadhaar card for those excluded from final NRC

People who are excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) and cannot prove their Indian citizenship after exhausting all their legal options will not be able to obtain Aadhaar cards anywhere in the country as their biometrics will be flagged.

As per the orders of Supreme Court, the final NRC list is scheduled to be published on August 31.

NRC is a register containing names of Indian citizens, which was prepared for the only time in 1951. It is being updated for Assam as of now to weed out illegal immigrants. Last month, the Supreme Court had extended the deadline for the final publication of NRC from July 31 to August 31. It had rejected a plea to extend the NRC deadline for sample verification.

More than 40 lakh people were excluded from the draft NRC, published in two phases, and close to 10% of them did not even re-apply for the inclusion.

All those whose names were excluded from the draft NRC were given the opportunity to prove their Indian citizenship before the authorities.

During the NRC exercise, the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) had recorded the biometric details of people who had filed claims. If anyone whose name is not included in the final NRC applies for Aadhaar card anywhere in the country, their biometrics will be flagged by the system. 

Aadhar cards will be issued to them if their names are included in the final register of citizens.

Following the publication of list on Saturday, those who do not find their name can challenge the exclusion in foreigners tribunals from Monday. 200 additional foreigners tribunals will be operational in Assam from Monday where bona fide citizens can approach to challenge their exclusion.

Meanwhile, several districts of Assam have been declared 'sensitive' and security has been beefed up as a precautionary measure.

Section 144 (preventing unlawful assembly) of the CrPC has been clamped in Dispur, where the secretariat and Assembly complexes are located.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday urged the people to not believe in rumours related to the final publication of the NRC as non-inclusion of a person's name does not amount to his or her being declared a foreigner.

"Every individual left out from final NRC can appeal to Foreigners Tribunals (FTs), an increased number of which are being established," the spokesperson of Home Ministry tweeted.

Posting guidelines for those who have been left out of the final list, the spokesperson said that time limit for filing appeals in FTs has been increased from 60 to 120 days.

(With ANI inputs)