india

Updated: Dec 12, 2018 16:23 IST

The Supreme Court has extended the last date to file claims and objections on inclusion of names in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) from December 15 to December 31, 2018.

The court’s order came after the Assam government asked it to extend the deadline on Tuesday. The state government had asked for an urgent hearing which the court had refused but had said that it would consider the plea. Hearing the case today, the Supreme Court extended the deadline by 15 days.

NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela tells Supreme Court,”Out of 40 lakh people who were left out of the final draft NRC, 14.8 lakh people have filed claims.”

On November 1, the Court had given the state a deadline of December 15 to register the remaining people.

The Supreme Court had earlier allowed the populace to use five more documents to prove their citizenship and be included in the final NRC. This, the state government, had claimed was putting additional burden on the NRC authorities to make the process of inclusion fool-proof.

The state had also cited the panchayat polls, for which the dates were announced on November 2, a day after the Supreme Court’s order. The state’s counsel had said that the government officials were busy with the polls, for which counting of votes has been scheduled for December 12.