Background

The NRC has its roots in the Memorandum of Settlement, or the Assam Accord signed between the Assam State Students Union and the Government of India in 1985. The accord was an outcome of the violent anti-migrant movement of the 1980s and contained various clauses to curb illegal migration.

♤ It contained a provision that all ‘foreigners’ who came to Assam after March 25, 1971 should be detected and deported under the Illegal Migration Determination (by Tribunals) (IMDT) Act, 1983.

♤ It also talked about the deletion of foreigners' names from the electoral rolls.

The Citizenship Act of 1955 was amended after the Assam Accord for all Indian-origin people who came from Bangladesh before January 1, 1966 to be deemed as citizens. Those who came between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971 were eligible for citizenship after registering and living in the State for 10 years while those entering after March 25, 1971, were to be deported. However, nothing much happened over the decades.

In 2014, the Supreme Court asked the state government to update the 1951 NRC in a time- bound manner. The exercise was conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

NRC updation is the process of enlisting the names of those persons (or their descendants) whose names appear in either of the following-

♤ any of the Assam’s Electoral Rolls within up to 24th March 1971, or

♤ 1951 NRC, or

♤ any of the admissible documents stipulated such as land or tenancy record, citizenship certificate or permanent residential certificate etc.

In August, 2019, the updated and final National Register of Citizens, which validates bonafide Indian citizens of Assam has was released with over 19 lakh applicants having failed to make it to the list.