Provisions for people having missed out the NRC list

♤ The Assam government assured people that those who find their names missing from the final NRC will not immediately be termed "foreigners" or illegal immigrants.

♤ Such people will be allowed to register protests with the Foreigners Tribunal. They can even approach the High Court or even the Supreme Court for further appeal in the matter.

♤ The State government will also provide legal aid to the poor who find their names missing.

Supreme Court held that a Foreigners’ Tribunal's order declaring a person as an illegal foreigner would be binding and would prevail over the government decision to exclude or include the name from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) are quasi-judicial bodies meant to determine whether a person is or is not a foreigner under Foreigner’s Act, 1946.

♤ FTs were first setup in 1964 and are unique to Assam. In rest of the country, a foreigner apprehended by the police for staying illegally is prosecuted in a local court and later deported/put in detention centres.

♤ Each FT is headed by a member who can be a retired judicial officer, bureaucrat or lawyer with minimum seven years of legal practice.