All Assam Ahom Association Represented By Its President Mr. Jnanandan Phukan vs. Union Of India Represented By The Secretary

ITEM NO.301 COURT NO.4 SECTION X/PIL(W)

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

WRIT PETITION(S)(CIVIL) NO(S). 562/2012

ASSAM SANMILITA MAHASANGHA PETITIONER(S)

VERSUS

UNION OF INDIA & ORS. RESPONDENT(S)

[WITH OFFICE REPORT]

WITH W.P.(C) NO. 274/2009

W.P.(C) NO. 916/2014

W.P.(C) NO. 876/2014

W.P.(C) NO. 311/2015

W.P.(C) NO. 449/2015

W.P.(C) NO. 450/2015

W.P.(C) NO. 68/2016

Date : 13-07-2017 These matters were called on for hearing today.

Mr. B. Krishna Prasad, AOR

CORAM :

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RANJAN GOGOI HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ROHINTON FALI NARIMAN

For parties:	Mr. Ranjit Kumar, Solicitor General
	Mr. Maninder Singh,ASG
	Ms. Rashmi Malhotra, Adv.
	Mr. R.M. Bajaj, Adv.
	Ms. Rekha Pandey, Adv.
	Mr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak, Adv.
	Mr. R. Bala, Adv.
	Mr. R. Pandey, Adv.
	Ms. Binu Tamta, Adv.
	Mr. D.L. Chidanand, Adv.
	Mr. R.M. Bajaj, Adv.

Mr. Ranjit Kumar, Solicitor General Mr. A.K. Panda, Sr. Adv. Mr. R.R. Rajesh, Adv. Mr. Kiran Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Raj Bahadur, Adv. Mr. Kailash Vasdev, Sr. Adv. Ms. Sunita Sharma, Adv. Ms. R. Malhotra, Adv. Mr. B.K. Prasad, Adv. Mr. B.H. Marlapalle, Sr. Adv. Mr. Nazarul Haq Barbhuya, Sr. Adv. Mr. Shakil Ahmed Syed, AOR Mr. A.S. Tapadar, Adv. Ms. Sadia Shakeel, Adv. Mr. Ejaz Maqbool, AOR. Mr. N.H. Mazar Bhuiyan, Adv. Mr. A.S. Tapader, Adv. Ms. Akriti Chaubey, Adv. Ms. Tanya Shree, Adv. Mr. Raju Ramachandran, Adv. Mr. Ejaz Maqbool, AOR. Ms. Akriti Chaubey, Adv. Ms. Tanya Shree, Adv. Mr. B.H. Marlapalle, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ejaz Maqbool, AOR. Mr. M. Shoeb Alam, AOR Ms. Fauzia Shakil, Adv. Mr. Ujjwal Singh, Adv. Mr. Mojahid Karim Khan, Adv. Mr. S.K.Visen, Adv. Mr. Anil Grover, AAG Mr. Mishal Vij, Adv. Mr. Somiran Sharma, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR

Mr. Partha Sil, AOR Mr. Sunil Murarka, Adv. Mr. Tavish B. Prasad, Adv. Mr. Santi Ranjan Das, Adv. Mr. Anindo Mukherjee, Adv. Ms. Sarla Chandra, AOR Mr. Manish Goswami, Adv. Mr. Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, AOR Mr. Guntur Prabhakar, AOR Mr. Syed Ali Ahmad, Adv. Mr. Syed Tanweer Ahmad, Adv. Mr. S.S. Bandyopadhyay, Adv. Mr. Mohan Pandey, AOR Mr. Shadman Ali, Adv. Mr. Raj Bahadur Yadav, Adv. Mr. Shreekant N. Terdal, AOR Mr. Abhijit Sengupta, AOR Mr. Shibashish Misra, AOR Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Sayooj Mohandas M., Adv. Ms. L.S. Changsan, Adv. Ms. Diksha Rai, AOR Mr. Asit Kr. Roy, Adv. Mr. Snehasish Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Mohit D. Ram, AOR Mr. Mehmood Pracha, Adv. Mr. Mansoor Ali, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Srivastav, Adv. Mr. Shadan Farasat, AOR Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, AOR Mr. Nizam Pasha, Adv. Mr. Pushkar Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Ms. Krishna Sarma, Adv. Mr. Navnit Kumar, Adv. Ms. Kankana Arandhan, Adv. For M/s. Corporate Law Group, AOR Mr. Prateek Jalan, Adv. Ms. Malvika Trivedi, Adv. Mr. Rahul Kriplani, Adv. Mr. Ankit Yadav, Adv. Mr. T. Mahipal, AOR Mr. K.V. Jagdishvaran, Adv. Ms. G. Indira, AOR Mr. J. Hillson Angam, Adv. Mr. Samir Ali Khan, AOR Mr. C. D. Singh, AOR Ms. Shashi Juneja, Adv. Mr. Avi Pandey, Adv. Mr. Mohd. Usman, Adv. Ms. Prachi Mishra, Adv. Mr. C.D. Singh, AOR Ms. Pragya Garg, Adv. Mr. Nirnimesh Dube, AOR Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR Ms. Shodhika Sharma, Adv. Mr. Tapesh Kumar Singh, AOR Mr. Mohd. Waquas, Adv. Mr. Aditya Pratap Singh, Adv. Mr. C. K. Sasi, AOR Mr. Liz Mathew, AOR Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, AOR

Mr. Edward Belho, AAG Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. K. Luikang Michael, Adv. Mr. Elix Gangmei, Adv. Mr. F.H. Isaac Haiding, Adv. Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, Adv. Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR Mr. Kuldip Singh, AOR Ms. Ruchi Kohli, AOR Ms. Aruna Mathur, Adv. Mr. Avneesh Arputham, Adv. Ms. Anuradha Arputham, Adv. Mr. Amit Arora, Adv. For M/s Arputham Aruna And Co, AOR Mr. Debojit Borkakati, Adv. Mr. M. Balashivudu, Adv. Mr. B. Balaji, AOR Mr. Ashutosh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Ms. Shalini Kumar, Adv. Mr. Vinay Garg, Adv. Mr. Ravi Prakash Mehrotra, AOR Ms. Rachana Srivastava, AOR Ms. Monika, Adv. Mr. Sukrit R. Kapoor, Adv. Mr. Nitya Madhusoodan, Adv. Mr. Aviral Saxena, Adv. Mr. Parijat Sinha, AOR Mr. Raja Chatterjee, Adv. Mr. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, AOR Ms. Runa Bhuyan, Adv. Mr. Sapam Biswajit, Adv. Mr. Ashok Kumar Singh, AOR Mr. Naresh Kr. Gaur, Adv.

Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, AOR Ms. Alka Sinha, Adv. Mr. Anuvrat Sharma, AOR Mr. D. Bharathi Reddy, AOR Ms. Rachna Gandhi, Adv. Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee, AOR Mr. Avnish M. Oza, Adv. Mr. Chirag Jain, Adv. Mr. Abhinav Mukerji, AOR For M/s K J John And Co, AOR Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR Ms. Sushma Suri, AOR Mr. Shakil Ahmed Syed, AOR Mr. Mohd. Parvez Dabas, Adv. Mr. Uzmi Jameel Husain, Adv. Mr. Milan Laskar, Adv. Mr. V. K. Sidharthan, AOR Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR Mr. Shreyas Jain Adv. Ms. Ambika Gautam, Adv. Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna, AOR Ms. Nithya, Adv. Ms. Maha Lakshmi, Adv. Mr. Partha Sarathi, Adv. Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, Adv. Mr. Mrityunjai Singh, Adv. Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi, AOR

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

We have perused the report submitted by Shri Prateek Hajela, learned State Coordinator for National Registration (NRC) and Commissioner & Secretary, Home & Political, Government of Assam dated 12th July, 2017. The learned State Coordinator though had submitted before the Court at one point of time that the date of publication of the draft NRC would be sometime around 31st March, 2018 has now stated in his report to the Court that the draft NRC will be published on 31st December, 2017. We wonder whether the stand taken by the learned State Coordinator is pursuant to the statement made by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of the State of Assam that the draft NRC would be published on or before 31st December, 2017. We do not appreciate why any other authority is intervening in the matter of preparation and publication of the draft NRC when this Court has been in seisin of the matter for a fairly long time and has been monitoring the process.

Be that as it may, on the statement made by the learned State Coordinator, we now understand that the date for publication of the draft NRC is 31st December, 2017. Accordingly, all budgetary revisions as stated in the report of the learned State Coordinator to be approved and implemented and requisite funds made available so that the process of publication of the draft NRC is completed on or before 31st December, 2017. Any difficulty(ies) that the learned State Coordinator may encounter in the process including intervention(s) by any other authority(ies) will be reported forthwith to this Court for appropriate orders.

In our previous orders dated 8th March, 2017 and 20th April, 2017 we had expressed the hope that the Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri Madhukar Gupta, Ex-Home Secretary which was monitoring the issue of border fencing on the western front could also do so for the Indo-Bangladesh border or at least the remaining unfenced area. We are told by Shri Ranjit Kumar, learned Solicitor General that a communication has been received from Shri Madhukar Gupta that on personal grounds/reasons he is unable to act in the matter, as desired by the Court. In such circumstances, the Court has no alternative but to constitute another Committee for which the learned Solicitor General as well as the learned counsels for all the contesting parties would suggest names within seven days from today. The composition of the Committee in the light of the suggestions that may be forthcoming will be finalized by the Court sitting in Chambers on 21st July, 2017. Further orders with regard to the role of the Committee will be passed by the Court on the said date.

The matter be listed in open Court after submission of the report of the Committee to be appointed/constituted as per order to be passed in Chambers on 21st July, 2017 after the suggestions, as above, are received or upon receipt of any further report from the learned State Coordinator, as may be.

All applications for impleadment shall be posted before the Constitution Bench.

AR-cum-PS BRANCH OFFICER

(VINOD LAKHINA) (ASHA SONI)