Centre 'apprehensive' about publication of updated NRC list, tells SC it could cause unrest in Assam

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the process of publication of National Register of Citizens (NRC) could cause unrest in Assam as lakhs of people may lose their citizenship in the exercise. It said that the deadline fixed by the apex court for updating the draft NRC was 31 December, 2017, and its publication may result in serious law and order problem in the state. [caption id=“attachment_4225075” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of the Supreme Court. AP[/caption] Attorney General KK Venugopal made the submission while arguing in another case relating to fixing of accountability for damage to life and property during protests. “Large scale work is going on in updating the NRC in Assam. Lakhs of people will be included in the NRC while lakhs of people may lose citizenship. Government of India is apprehensive about large scale agitation on publication of the updated list,” he told a bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit. The AG said the Centre was mobilising forces to check any untoward incident in the state as the date of publication of draft NRC was nearing. The apex court was told that as on 22 November, a total of 3.29 crore claims have been made for inclusion in the NRC, which is being prepared to identify illegal migrants. The NRC of 1951 is being updated for Assam in accordance with the tripartite agreement between the state and central governments and All Assam Students Union (AASU) arrived at in 2005 to implement the 1985 Assam Accord. A separate bench of apex court is already supervising the process of updating the draft NRC as per the Assam Accord.