The Supreme Court has rejected the Centre's plea seeking extension for publication of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam. The NRC is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in Assam. The Registrar General of Citizen Registration had sought more time and Attorney General K K Venugopal had backed the request.<br/><br/>The top court said it has been monitoring the process of updating the NRC for three years now and it was the sheer inaction on the part of the executive in dragging the matter. It said the draft NRC will be published after the midnight of December 31.<br/><br/>The Attorney General said fixing a date for publication of the draft NRC was an executive function and a court order to this effect would be an encroachment on the executive domain. <br/><br/>To this the court said on the last hearing on July 13, when December 31, 2017 was fixed for publication of the draft NRC, the contentions now advanced of judicial overreach were not made before the court.The court listed the matter for further hearing on February 20, 2018. <br/><br/>

The Supreme Court has rejected the Centre's plea seeking extension for publication of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam. The NRC is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in Assam. The Registrar General of Citizen Registration had sought more time and Attorney General K K Venugopal had backed the request.<br/><br/>The top court said it has been monitoring the process of updating the NRC for three years now and it was the sheer inaction on the part of the executive in dragging the matter. It said the draft NRC will be published after the midnight of December 31.<br/><br/>The Attorney General said fixing a date for publication of the draft NRC was an executive function and a court order to this effect would be an encroachment on the executive domain. <br/><br/>To this the court said on the last hearing on July 13, when December 31, 2017 was fixed for publication of the draft NRC, the contentions now advanced of judicial overreach were not made before the court.The court listed the matter for further hearing on February 20, 2018. <br/><br/>