The Election Commission has said that those who have been left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) but are registered voters in Assam will be able to cast votes for now.
A Foreigners’ tribunal will look into the cases of those who have not been included in the list so far. Earlier, in a statement, the Centre has said that those left out of NRC were not necessarily deemed foreigners.
The Supreme Court had earlier decided earlier to keep the voting rights of 1.2 lakh “doubtful” voters in Assam on hold till their status is decided. The category of doubtful voters was introduced in Assam in 1997 by the EC while revising the list of rightful voters in the state. Thus, the question was raised that whether those who were excluded from NRC would be marked as doubtful voters and their voting rights revoked.
The apex court has said that, those who can prove their stay in Assam up to the midnight of March 24, 1971 – a day before Bangladesh was freed from Pakistan – would be considered rightful citizens of India according to the NRC.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party in Assam, and the state Congress have raised questions on the authenticity of the list published, as they suspect several genuine citizens have been left out of the list.
Comments are closed.