To facilitate the appeals, 200 new Foreigners Tribunals have been made functional from today, in addition to 100 already existing ones.
People check their names after the final list of National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam was published, at a computer centre in Morigaon on Aug 31, 2019. (Photo: IANS)
Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday informed that persons who have been left out of the final Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) list will not be detained till they exhaust all remedies available under law.
The state government has made arrangements to provide legal aid to the needy amongst those excluded from the list by providing assistance through District Legal Services Authorities, the ministry said.
Adequate judicial process is available for affected persons to appeal to the Foreigners Tribunal within 120 days from August 31.
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To facilitate the appeals, 200 new Foreigners Tribunals have been made functional from today, in addition to 100 already existing ones.
The Assam government is planning to establish 400 Foreigners Tribunals in the state to deal with the cases of people who are excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in Assam was published on Saturday including names of 3.1 crore people and leaving out 19 lakh names.
The draft published on July 30, 2018, included the names of 2.9 crore people out of total applications of 3.29 crore. Forty-one lakh people were left out in the draft.
The publication of the citizens’ list is aimed at identifying legal residents and weed out illegal immigrants.
The Foreigners’ Tribunals are Quasi-judicial courts mandated to hear appeals of those excluded from the NRC.
Meanwhile, the Home Ministry had planned to set up a total of 1,000 foreigners tribunal in phases.
The Union Home Ministry has also increased from 60 to 120 days the time limit for filing appeals in Foreign Tribunals (FTs) regarding exclusion from the final NRC in Assam.
The Supreme Court had recently extended the deadline to publish the final NRC from July 31 to August 31.
The Supreme Court-monitored NRC exercise, aimed at identifying illegal immigrants, mostly from Bangladesh, was carried out only in Assam, which has been facing an influx of people from the neighbouring country since the early 20th century.
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