Supreme Court: Centre wants to stall NRC work

Activists of Minority Youth Federation protest against publishing of the first complete draft of the NRC. File Pic/AFP

The Centre is "hell bent" on stalling the Assam NRC work, the SC said on Tuesday while rapping it for seeking suspension of the process during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls citing non-availability of security forces.

The apex court got irked when Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted that the process be suspended from the last date of submission of nomination papers till two weeks after the date of upcoming elections in view of the fact that 167 companies of CAPF, engaged in Assam NRC work, would be sent to maintain law and order during polls.

"We are sorry to say this. The Ministry of Home Affairs is hell bent upon not to carry on the NRC process and it is destroying entire efforts being made by this court," said a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman. The bench, which reiterated that it would not extend the deadline of July 31 for finalisation of NRC, also directed that 3,457 state government officials be kept free for NRC work and asked the Election Commission to "examine the case of exemption of officials, in the rank of district magistrates, additional district magistrates...from transfers which are likely to be made in view of the elections".

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