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[1] Ahead of SC's August 31 deadline, TOI takes a look at how the NRC was compiled, the path ahead for those who have been excluded and whether an exercise on similar lines could be undertaken in other statesThe Supreme Court has set a deadline of August 31 for publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) – the final list of Assam's residents – being prepared to identify bonafide residents and deport illegal migrants in the northeastern state bordering Bangladesh.Why August 31 deadline is importantWith the four-year-long SC-monitored exercise culminating on August 31, anxiety levels are mounting. About 40.7 lakh names were excluded from the draft NRC released on July 31 last year. This increased to over 41 lakh names after an 'additional draft exclusion list' that dropped another one lakh names was published on June 26, 2019. Some 2.9 crore people out of a total 3.29 crore applicants were included in the NRC. For those who don't make it to the final list, a long and tough battle lies ahead where they will have to prove they are legal Indian citizens.What gets you on the list?To make it to the current list, names of family members of the applicant should be in the first NRC prepared in 1951 or in the electoral rolls up to March 24, 1971. Other documents include birth certificate, refugee registration certificate, land and tenancy records, citizenship certificate, permanent residential certificate, passport, LIC policy, government issued licence or certificate, bank/post office accounts, government employment certificate, educational certificate and court records.The Assam Accord of 1985 formalised March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date to identify "foreigners" in the state as the Bangladesh Liberation War began the next day. But considering India's poor documentation culture, many genuine citizens have been unable to furnish the required documents.What happens if you are excluded?The Union home ministry has clarified that "non-inclusion of a person's name in the NRC does not by itself amount to him/her being declared a foreigner" as the person will be allowed to present his/her case before designated foreigners' tribunals. The state government has also said that those left out of the NRC will not be detained "under any circumstances" until the foreigners' tribunals declare them foreigners.Foreigners’ tribunals, promised under the Assam Accord, are quasi-judicial bodies that exclusively adjudicate matters of citizenship. Those who have been declared foreigners by tribunals are not eligible for inclusion in the NRC. In case a person is included in the NRC but declared a non-national by a tribunal later, it is the tribunal’s verdict that will prevail.According to Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the Centre may consider bringing in legislation to set right wrongful inclusions (of foreigners) and exclusions (of genuine citizens) on the list. However, this measure, if warranted, will take place only after the NRC is published.Adequate arrangements will be made by the state govt to provide full opportunity to appeal against non-inclusion. Every individual, whose name does not figure in the final NRC, can represent his/her case in front of the appellate authority, i.e. Foreigners Tribunals. Thus, non-inclusion of a person’s name in the NRC does not by itself amount to him/her being declared as a foreignerMinistry of Home AffairsWhere to appeal?Appeals can be made under Section 8 of Schedule to the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. The time limit to file an appeal has been increased from 60 days to 120 days – till December 31, 2019. A total of 1,000 tribunals have been sanctioned by the home ministry. If one loses the case in the tribunal, the person can move the high court and, then, the Supreme Court. No one will be put in detention centres until all legal options are exhausted, the government has stated.The Assam government has said it will provide free legal aid to 'needy' people whose name does not figure on the list. The state's ruling BJP and opposition Congress also plan to 'assist' bonafide citizens who are kept out of the NRC. NGOs too have volunteered to navigate the complex issue of Indian citizenship after August 31.What happens if you are declared a foreigner?The state is setting up detention centres exclusively for those declared foreigners after exhausting all legal routes. Repatriation of such people looks difficult as India and Bangladesh do not have any treaty in this regard.The border police personnel who didn’t make the cutMohammad Sanaullah, 52, joined the Indian Army in 1987. In his 30-year-long career, he served in J&K at the height of insurgency in the 90s. After retiring from the Army as an honorary lieutenant in 2017, he joined the border wing of Assam Police. The border wing is responsible for detecting “foreigners” in the state.On May 23, the former Army man found himself on the other side of the opaque process – he was tagged a “non-national”. The Foreigners’ Tribunal at Boko in Kamrup district declared him a foreigner on the grounds that he had “miserably failed to prove” his citizenship. He was summarily dismissed from the Assam Police. He was dropped from the NRC and, subsequently, sent to a detention centre in Goalpara. Those declared foreigners by tribunals cannot be included in the NRC, at least until they are cleared as citizens by a tribunal.Sanaullah is out on bail now, but his chances of making it to the final NRC appear slim.The historyFirst created in 1951, NRC is a list of Indian citizens in Assam. At the time, two other states in the northeast – Manipur and Tripura – were also given grants by the Centre to create their own NRCs, but it never materialised. Assam is presently the only state in India to have an NRC. The grounds then were the same as those now – “unabated” migration from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). A year before the first NRC was released, the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950 was passed by the Centre, allowing the government to deport anyone whose stay was “detrimental to the interests” of the people. An exception was made only for those displaced by “civil disturbances” in what was then East Pakistan. The Act was repealed in 1957.Assam artist in I-Day roll of honour, out of draft NRC79-year-old Sunirmal Bagchi, a well-known cultural activist, made it to the Assam's govt's Independence Day roll of honour, making him eligible for monthly pension for his contributions in the field of culture, but he hasn't found a place in the draft NRC.Born in Assam on September 21, 1943, Bagchi even has a birth certificate issued by the Silchar municipal board. He thus fails to understand how he's been categorised as a 'foreigner'. Having cleared the citizenship test earlier, he was included in the draft NRC published last year. But for some reason his name was later dropped and he was asked to reappear at an NRC centre with the relevant documents. He's now waiting to see if his name will be included in the final version.How first NRC of 1951 was compiledThe first NRC was essentially another form of the 1951 Census report, which was prepared on the basis of questions asked by enumerators. It listed each house and property holding along with the names of those staying in or owning them. The list comprised of those who lived in India on January 26, 1950, or were born in India or had parents who were born in India or had been living in India for at least five years before the January 26, 1950 cut-off. Till 1960, these records were maintained by every deputy commissioner and sub-divisional officer, following which, they were turned over to the police, who used them to identify “Pakistani nationals” under the Prevention of Infiltration from Pakistan scheme.A snake-and-ladder case for Sahitya Akademi winnerDurga Khatiwada, 60, (second from left) is president of the Asom Nepali Sahitya Sabha. In 2001, he won the Sahitya Akademi Award. He had made it to the draft NRC, published in July 2018. This year, on June 26, he discovered he was among the one lakh people dropped from the draft NRC after being included. The reason? He had been tagged as a ‘doubtful’ voter by the Election Commission earlier. He was cleared of the tag in 2015, but that did not help.Gorkhas came to the northeast as early as the 19th century when they were recruited by the British in the Assam Light Infantry. The recruitment followed the 1815 Treaty of Segowlee signed between the East India Company and Nepal after the Anglo-Gorkha War.Last year, a Union home ministry notification had ruled that any member of the Gorkha community who was an Indian citizen in 1950, or an Indian citizen by birth, naturalization and registration are not “foreigners” and will not be referred to foreigners’ tribunals. The rule appears to have made no difference to the fate of Khatiwada and more than 25 lakh Gorkhas like him, who await the August 31 NRC.Why the NRC update in AssamWhen the NRC was first created, the idea was that it would be updated from time to time, just like the Census. But, that never happened. The NRC is basically an outcome of the All Assam Students’ Union's (Aasu) demand for removing the names of all illegal migrants from electoral rolls after a “rise” in the number of Bengali voters in Mangaldoi district in 1979 was noticed. The Mangaldoi episode led to a six-year-long anti-foreigner movement in Assam, culminating in the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985. Aasu and the Asom Gana Sangram Parishad (present-day Asom Gana Parishad) were the two main protagonists of the agitation. The accord, signed between the Centre, the Assam government and the agitators agreed to identify and deport all “foreigners” living in Assam. It identified March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for identifying illegal migrants.As the problem of infiltration from across the border persisted, in 2005, the signatories of the Assam Accord agreed to update the 1951 register to detect illegal non-nationals and settlers. Owing to a lack of consensus on modalities, the government took another five years to initiate a pilot project for NRC update, which was abruptly called off because of violent protests by students from the minority community. In 2013, the Supreme Court, in response to a series of writ petitions, ordered the Centre and the Assam government to resume the NRC update process. But, it was only after a wait of two years that the process finally started in 2015.Rid of illegal immigrantsRid of jihadistRid of criminals by opting dataRid of extermismFootnotes[1] All you need to know about the NRC - Times of India