April 6, 2022
Sushmita Dev’s Special Mention on releasing biometric data of those in final NRC list so as to get Aadhaar Cards
Sir, updation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) was conducted in Assam under the supervision of the Supreme Court (SC). A draft NRC was published on 30.07.18 leaving out 40,70,707 persons as ineligible for inclusion. Vide order dated 13.08.19, the SC directed the NRC coordinator to set up a security regime for NRC biometric data as per Aadhaar regime. On 31.08.2019, a final list of NRC was released. Twenty-one lakh people were included and about 19 lakh were left out. The biometrics have been withheld of about 26 lakh people including those whose names appeared in the NRC final draft list citing the Modalities. Clause 9 of the said Modalities states that once the final NRC has been published, persons who are included in it will be given an Aadhaar number as citizens. However, that has not happened on the grounds that the process of claims and objections have to be completed which can take a
long time. As a consequence, lakhs of people are deprived of basic amenities connected to Aadhaar, even though they are not declared as foreigners depriving them of their Fundamental Right of life, livelihood, education and prevents access to Government schemes, requiring mandatory Aadhaar registration. The court has stated that no coercive
action shall be taken against the people left out of the NRC until final notification. The Central Government should take steps either in court or other legislative action to release the biometric data and remove this anomaly.
