The Supreme Court of India has agreed to examine a writ petition filed by former Assam NRC Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma, seeking a comprehensive, time-bound reverification of the draft and supplementary National Register of Citizens (NRC) prepared for Assam. The plea, filed under Clause 4(3) of the Schedule to the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, contends that the updation process was riddled with serious errors and irregularities, undermining both the accuracy of the exercise and its larger national security implications.

 

A Bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Atul S. Chandurkar issued notice in the matter on Thursday, following submissions by Senior Advocate Manish Goswami assisted by Advocate-on-Record Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, who appeared for the petitioner.

 

The petitioner, a retired IAS officer, disclosed that he had been directly associated with the NRC process, first as Executive Director (2014–2017) and later as State NRC Coordinator (December 2019–July 2022). In his petition, Sarma asserted that despite repeated red flags raised by officials and audit agencies, large-scale anomalies persisted in the NRC preparation. Filing the plea in his personal capacity as well as “on behalf of a large section of indigenous people of Assam,” Sarma argued that a faulty NRC violates Articles 14, 19, 21, 25 and 29 of the Constitution.

 

The draft NRC was published on July 30, 2018, followed by a supplementary list on August 31, 2019. However, the final NRC is still pending publication by the Registrar General of India. The petition stresses that before publication, a systematic reverification is essential to correct wrongful inclusions and exclusions.

 

Errors & Irregularities Highlighted in the Petition

Of the 40,07,719 persons excluded from the draft NRC, nearly 3,93,975 individuals did not file claims. Among these, around 50,695 appeared prima facie eligible for inclusion, but were wrongly left out.

A 2019 report from the Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup revealed that in Chamaria Circle, 64,247 applicants were marked as “Originally Inhabitants,” but a sample check found 14,183 ineligible. Special verification of 30,791 persons further exposed 7,446 ineligible applicants, including declared foreigners, descendants of foreigners, doubtful voters, and those with pending Foreigners Tribunal cases.

Out of 5,06,140 decisions taken by Disposing Officers (DOs) during the claims and objections process, only 4,148 were accompanied by speaking orders. Alarmingly, 43,642 names were shifted from ‘reject’ to ‘accept’ and 4,62,498 from ‘accept’ to ‘reject’, without any recorded hearings or reasoned orders.

A sample quality check showed 943 names wrongly entered in the draft NRC due to errors in Family Tree Matching. The petitioner argued that such mistakes pointed to poor quality control and a high probability of systemic inaccuracies.

The CAG Report (FY 2020) flagged irregularities worth over ₹260 crore during NRC updation. It recommended fixing accountability on the then State Coordinator. The petition also cites letters from the NRC office, inputs from IT vendor Bohniman Systems Pvt. Ltd., and a cyber-security consultant’s findings on lapses in data protection.

 

The petitioner stressed that the preparation of a correct and error-free NRC is integral to national security, given its direct link to citizenship determination in a sensitive border state like Assam. According to him, “serious omissions and commissions” have diluted the credibility of the process, warranting urgent judicial intervention.

 

The plea seeks directions for:

• A complete and comprehensive reverification of the draft and supplementary NRC,

• A time-bound mechanism supervised by the Supreme Court,

• Corrective measures to address both wrongful exclusions of eligible citizens and wrongful inclusions of ineligible persons.

 

 

The Court’s ruling in this matter could have significant ramifications for the fate of the Assam NRC, which remains unpublished six years after the draft.