Not bothered about criticism, NRC to be published by Aug 31: SC

Declining to take judicial note on the revelation of NRC data in the Assam Assembly session, the Supreme Court Bench said that it was not bothered by the criticism coming its way, and would continue to oversee NRC finalised as per the scheduled deadline of August 31.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on the citizenship status of people who were not included in the Assam NRC list, saying that it was not bothered about criticism coming its way.

The apex court was hearing a matter pertaining to the citizenship status of people born in India between 1971 and 1987, and who were not included in the NRC list.

Declining to take judicial note on the revelation of NRC data in the Assam Assembly session, the Supreme Court Bench said, "We will not be bothered by what others say about our orders and judgments. We will continue to oversee NRC finalised as per the scheduled date of August 31."

"As far as the court and judges' order is concerned, there is no end. Our decisions get criticism every morning. We refuse to get in get into what happened in assembly," added Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

Earlier, the Assam government had claimed that the percentage of people excluded from the draft National Register of Citizens was lower in districts bordering Bangladesh having a sizeable Muslim population than those where Hindus were in majority.

The government placed a list in the state assembly on August 1 which contained district-wise figures of people left out of the hugely contentious NRC, which is being updated under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

The development came despite an apex court directive to the state coordinator of NRC to submit before it the details in a sealed cover as the matter was "a human problem with great magnitude".

Under the Supreme Court's directions, the first draft of the NRC was published on December 31, 2017, and the final draft on July 30 last year, where 40 lakh odd people were left out.

The Supreme Court had on July 23 extended the deadline for publication of the final NRC by a month to August 31.

Read: Unlikely that public opinion will change NRC process: Expert