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\'India can’t be world’s refugee capital’: Centre asks SC to extend NRC deadline

The court has fixed National Register of Citizens (NRC) matter for further hearing on July 23.

New Delhi: The Centre on Friday asked the Supreme Court to extend the July 31 deadline for the Assam list and said that it needed to tweak the process for inclusion of names in the list.

Tushar Mehta told court that "there is a growing perception that lakhs of illegal migrants have been included in the NRC list in alleged collusion with local NRC officials in the state of Assam. Illegal immigrants have to be dealt severely. India cannot be the refugee capital of the world."

The court has fixed National Register of Citizens (NRC) matter for further hearing on July 23.

The Union and state government also sought sample verification of the citizens included in the NRC, saying lakhs of people have been wrongly included in areas bordering Bangladesh due to involvement of local officers.

The first draft of the NRC for Assam was published on the intervening night of December 31, 2017 and January 1, 2018 in accordance with the top court's direction.

Names of 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated then. Assam, which had faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC which was first prepared in 1951.

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