Guwahati: Assam government will make necessary arrangements to provide free legal aid to those needy people, who would be excluded from the final list of NRC to be published on 31 August, a senior government official said today.
Persons left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will not be detained under any circumstances until foreigners tribunals (FTs) declare it, Assam’s Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Political department) Kumar Sanjay Krishna said in a statement today.
“The State government will make necessary arrangements to provide legal aid to the needy people amongst those excluded from NRC, by providing all assistance through the District Legal Services Authorities (DLSA),” he said.
Under the provisions of Foreigners’ Act, 1946 and Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, only foreigners tribunals are empowered to declare a person foreigner.
“Therefore, non-inclusion of a person’s name in NRC does not by itself amount to him/her being declared as foreigner,” the statement said.
For the benefit of those whose names do not appear in the final NRC, appeals can be made as per Section 8 of Schedule to the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. The Centre has extended the time limit for filing of appeals from 60 days to 120 days and necessary amendment in this regard has been made in the Foreigners’ (Tribunals) Amendment Order, 2019.