Dispur: The National Register of Citizens or NRC – a list intended to identify illegal immigrants in Assam – will be published at 10 am on Saturday. The draft list published last year had excluded over 41 lakh people.

The Assam government has said that legal help will be provided to people who are not included in the NRC.

The centre has said people whose names don’t appear in the final NRC cannot be declared foreigners till all legal options are exhausted.

Every person left out of the NRC can appeal to the Foreigners Tribunal, and the time limit to file the appeal has been extended from 60 to 120 days.

The Home Ministry said at least 1,000 tribunals will be set up in phases to hear disputes; 100 tribunals are already open and 200 more will be set up in the first week of September.

If one loses the case in the tribunal, one can approach the high court and then the Supreme Court. No one will be put in detention centres until all legal options are exhausted, the government has said.

People who are not included in the final NRC list will not be automatically arrested. They will enjoy every right of an Indian citizen until the foreigners tribunal declares them as foreigners.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said that they won’t be deported until all their legal options are exhausted. However, it is unclear what happens to those who are declared as foreigners – they could be sent to detention centres.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC), first published in Assam in 1951, is being updated as per directions of the Supreme Court to segregate Indian citizens living in Assam from those who have illegally entered the state from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971.

Criteria for being on the list:

Those whose names appear on the 1951 list, or are on electoral rolls before March 24, 1971, and their descendants.

Documents such as the birth certificate, refugee registration certificate, land and tenancy records, government-issued employment or education certificates dated prior to March 24, 1971.

Those who moved to Assam but can show proof of living elsewhere in the country prior to 1971.

Those born in India have to show that the person or their parents were born before a certain cut-off date.

Not only do people have to prove that their ancestors were in the country before March 24, 1971, but also prove that they are related. 

Those born after December 3, 2004, won’t be included in NRC if any of the parents is a doubtful voter, declared foreigner by a tribunal, or is contesting the case.

Doubtful voters, also known as D-voters, are a category of voters in Assam who are deprived of the voting rights as their citizenship cannot be ascertained. Around 1.25 lakh people are believed to be doubtful voters, according to official estimates and thousands are under the scanner of the Foreigners Tribunal and Assam Border Police, according to a fact-finding report by an activist group.