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

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

WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO(S). 274/2009

ASSAM PUBLIC WORKS PETITIONER(S)

VERSUS

UNION OF INDIA & ORS. RESPONDENT(S) ( AND IA NO.22616/2018-IMPLEADING PARTY)

WITH

W.P.(C) NO. 562/2012 (X) (I.A. 114708/2017 APPLICATION FOR EARLY HEARING IN W.P. (C) 562/2012 MAY BE LISTED)

W.P.(C) NO. 916/2014 (PIL-W) (FOR STAY APPLICATION ON IA 1/2014 FOR [PERMISSION TO FILE ANNEXURES] ON IA 2/2015 FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T. ON IA 3/2015 AND IA NO.119677/2017-IMPLEADING PARTY)

W.P.(C) NO. 876/2014 (X) (FOR STAY APPLICATION ON IA 1/2014)

W.P.(C) NO. 311/2015 (X) (FOR SEEKING LEAVE TO FILE WRITTEN ARGUMENTS ON IA 1/2015 FOR ON IA 2/2015)

W.P.(C) NO. 449/2015 (X) (FOR ON IA 1/2015)

W.P.(C) NO. 450/2015 (X) (FOR ON IA 1/2015)

W.P.(C) NO. 68/2016 (PIL-W) (FOR INTERVENTION APPLICATION ON IA 1/2017)

DIARY NO(S). 13544/2017 (XIV) (IA NO.43274/2017-CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING AND IA NO.43277/2017-EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T. AND IA NO.43276/2017- PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS)

ITEM NO.302 COURT NO.3 SECTION PIL-W/X/XIV

Date : 20-02-2018 These cases were called on for hearing today.

CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RANJAN GOGOI HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ROHINTON FALI NARIMAN For parties: Mr. K.K. Venugopal, AG Ms. Rekha Pandey, Adv. Ms. Rashmi Malhotra, Adv. Mr. B.V. Balram Das, Adv. Mr. K.K. Venugopal, AG Mr. Tushar Mehta, ASG Ms. Binu Tamta, Adv. Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv. Ms. Rekha Pandey, Adv. Mr. Rohit Bhatt, Adv. Mr. K.K. Venugopal, AG Mr. Tushar Mehta, ASG Mr. R.M. Bajaj, Adv. Ms. Binu Tamta, Adv. Ms. Rashmi Malhotra, Adv. Ms. Rekha Pandey, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Nair, Adv. Mr. Rohit Bhat, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Kaushik, Adv. Mr. B.V. Balaram Das, Adv. D & D Admn. Mr. Tushar Mehta, ASG Mr. Ajit Kumar Sinha, Sr. Adv. Ms. Kiran Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Shadman Ali, Adv. Mr. Raj Bahadur, Adv. Mrs. Anit Katiyar, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Manish Goswami, Adv. Mr. Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, AOR Mr. S.R. Das, Adv. Mrs. Sarla Chandra, AOR Mr. Somiran Sharma, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar, Adv.

	Mr. Gaurav Dhingra, AOR
	Mr. Ejaz Maqbool, AOR<br>Ms. Tanya Shree, Adv.<br>Mr. Aditya Singh, Adv.
	Mr. B. Krishna Prasad, AOR
	Mr. Snehasish Mukherjee, AOR<br>Mr. Asit Kumar Roy, Adv.<br>Ms. Shampa Nath, Adv.
State of Assam	Mr. Tushar Mehta, ASG<br>Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR<br>Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv.<br>Mr. Sayooj Mohandas M., Adv.<br>S.L.S. Changsan, Principal Secry., Home & Pol.<br>Dep.)
	Mr. Shibashish Misra, AOR
SJF	Mr. Mehmood Pracha, Adv.<br>Mr. R.H.A. Sikander, Adv.<br>Mr. Prateek Gupta, Adv.<br>Mr. Mansoor Ali, Adv.<br>Mr. Shadan Farasat, AOR<br>Mr. Shajahan Ali, Adv.<br>Mr. Saurabh Srivastava, Adv.<br>Mr. Dilawar Abbas Naqvi, Adv.
	Mr. Mohit D. Ram, AOR
	Mr. Mohan Pandey, AOR
	Ms. Madhumita Bhattacharjee, AOR
	Mr. Guntur Prabhakar, AOR
	Mr. Salman Khurshid, Sr. Adv.<br>Mr. Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, AOR<br>Mr. Mustafa Khaddam Hussain, Adv.<br>Mr. Varun Mishra, Adv.<br>Ms. Aditi Gupta, Adv.<br>Mr. Jawad Tariq, Adv.
	Mr. Abhijit Sengupta, AOR

Gauhati HC	Ms. Sneha Kalita, AOR
APCC	Mr. Navnit Kumar, Adv.<br>M/S.<br>Corporate Law Group, AOR
AASU	Mr. Prateek Jalan, Adv.<br>Ms. Malvika Trivedi, Adv.<br>Mr. Rahul Kriplani, Adv.<br>Mr. Ankit Yadav, Adv.<br>Mr. T. Mahipal, AOR
	Ms. Sushma Suri, AOR
	Mr. V. K. Sidharthan, AOR
State of Tripura	Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR<br>Mr. Rituraj Biswas, Adv.
State of WB	Mr. Raja Chatterjee, Adv.<br>Ms. Runa Bhuyan, Adv.<br>Mr. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, AOR<br>Mr. Piyush Sachdev, Adv.<br>Mr. Adeel Ahmed, Adv.
	Mr. Ashok Kumar Singh, AOR
	Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, AOR
	Mr. Anuvrat Sharma, AOR
State of Uttara<br>khand	Mrs. D. Bharathi Reddy, AOR<br>Ms. Rachna Gandhi, Adv.
UT of A & N Admn.	Mr. Bhupesh Narula, Adv.<br>Mr. K.V. Jagdishvaran, Adv.<br>Ms. G. Indira, AOR
State of Chattis<br>garh	Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee, AOR<br>Mr. A. Selvin Raja, Adv.<br>Mr. Chirag Jain, Adv.

	State of Jharkhand	Mr. Tapesh Kumar Singh, AOR<br>Mr. Mohd. Waquas, Adv.<br>Mr. Aditya Pratap Singh, Adv.
		for M/S.<br>K J John And Co, AOR
	State of Sikkim	Ms. Aruna Mathur, Adv.<br>Mr. Avneesh Arputham, Adv<br>Ms. Anuradha Arputham, Adv.<br>Ms. Simran Jeet, Adv.<br>for M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, AOR
	State of Rajasthan	Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, Adv.<br>Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR
		Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR
	State of Gujarat	Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR<br>Ms. Puja Singh, Adv.<br>Ms. Shodhika Sharma, Adv.<br>Ms. Mamta Singh, Adv.
		Ms. Abha R. Sharma, AOR
		Mr. Merusagar Samantaray, AOR
		Ms. Liz Mathew, AOR
		Mr. C. K. Sasi, AOR
	State of Meghalaya	Mr. Daniel Stone Leingdoh, Adv.<br>Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, AOR
	State of Nagaland	Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR<br>Mr. Edward Belho, Adv.<br>Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv.<br>Mr. K. Luikang Michael, Adv.
	State of Punjab	Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi, AOR
		Mr. Kuldip Singh, AOR

		State of Rajasthan	Mr. S.S. Shamshery, AAG, Rajasthan<br>Mr. Amit Sharma, Adv.<br>Mr. Sandeep Singh, Adv.<br>Mr. Ankit Raj, Adv.<br>Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv.<br>Ms. Ruchi Kohli, AOR<br>Mr. Milind Kumar, Adv.
			Mr. B. Balaji, AOR
State of UP			Mr. Prakash Gautam, Adv.<br>Mr. Upendra Mishra, Adv.<br>Mr. Abhishek, AOR
		Ms. Rachana Srivastava, AOR<br>Mr. Sukrit Kapoor, Adv.<br>Ms. Sudipta Sarkar, Adv.
			Mr. Parijat Sinha, AOR
			Mr. Sunil Murarka, Adv.<br>Mr. Partha Sil, AOR<br>Mr. Tavish B. Prasad, Adv.
			Ms. Diksha Rai, AOR
State of Assam			Mr. Debojit Borkakati, AOR<br>Mr. M. Balashivudu, Adv.
		Mr. Salman Khurshid, Sr. Adv.<br>Mr. Imtiaz Ahmed, Adv.<br>Mrs. Naghma Imtiaz, Adv.<br>Mr. Ahmed Zargham, Adv.<br>Ms. Amra Moosavi, Adv.<br>Mr. Aman K., Adv.<br>M/S. Equity Lex Associates, AOR
			Mr. Shakil Ahmed Syed, AOR
			Mr. B.H. Marlapalle, Sr.Adv.<br>Mr. Mansoor Ali, Adv.<br>Mr. A.K. Talukdar, Adv.<br>Mr. N.H. Mazar Bhuya, Adv.<br>Mr. A.S. Tapader, Adv.<br>Mr. Aditya Gaggar, Adv.<br>Mr. Ajit Wagh, Adv.<br>Ms. Lubna Ishrat Siddiqui, Adv.<br>Mr. Chandan Kr. Mandal, Adv.

State of H.P. Mr. Ajay Marwah, AOR State of Telangana Mr. Mrityunjai singh, Adv. For Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, Adv. State of J & K Mr. M. Shoeb Alam, AOR Ms. Fauzia Shakil, Adv. Mr. Ujjwal Singh, Adv. Mr. Mojahid Karim Khan, Adv. State of T.N. Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna, AOR Mrs. Sujatha Bagadhi, Adv.

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

We have heard Shri K.K. Venugopal, learned Attorney General for the Union of India and Shri Tushar Mehta, learned Additional Solicitor General for the State of Assam. We have also interacted with Shri Prateek Hajela, learned State Coordinator, NRC, Assam.

We have perused the report/reports submitted by Shri Prateek Hajela, learned Coordinator. After publication of the draft NRC on 31st December, 2017, further exercise of verification has been carried out and as per the report of the learned Coordinator another about 38.43 lakhs applications have been scrutinized bringing total number of scrutinized applications to about 2.29 crore leaving the balance applications to be scrutinized/verified to about 1 crore. The learned Coordinator has stated that by 31st

May, 2018 the verification of the balance 1 crore applications is expected to be over and thereafter another a month's time will be required for final mopup operations. In the aforesaid report, the learned Coordinator has further stated that the time frame mentioned above is "based on a rigorous assessment of the numbers of cases that can be disposed of without compromising the quality of disposal". Thus, according to the learned Coordinator, by 30th June, 2018 the entire exercise of publication of complete/final draft NRC will be completed. The learned Coordinator in its report has categorized the one crore pending applications (as on 31-01-2018) in the following manner:

• (a) Family Tree mismatches (48 lakhs)
• (b) Gaon Panchayat Secretary Certificates (29 lakhs)
• (c) Persons for whom results of document verification are awaited (16 lakhs)
• (d) Technical hold cases (16 lakhs).

We have taken note of the aforesaid statements made by the learned Coordinator. At this stage, all that we consider it appropriate to direct is that the work of further verification as stated in the report of the learned Coordinator should continue without any interference from any quarter(s) and with utmost speed and expedition. The progress on the ground in this regard will be monitored on the expiry of 30 days from today i.e. on 27th March, 2018 at 2.00 p.m.

From the materials on record it appears that the Local Body/Municipal/Panchayat elections in the State of Assam is due some time in March/April, 2018. The said elections will, naturally, have to be held as per the plans and schedule to be drawn up by the State Election Commission. However, we make it clear that the work of holding the Local Body/Municipal/Panchayat elections in the State of Assam will not be at the cost of upgradation/preparation of the final draft NRC and that the said work i.e. preparation/upgradation of the final draft NRC will continue as before with full deployment of manpower as on date. It is up to the State Election Commission and the State Authorities to take necessary action as may be required for holding of the Local Body/Municipal/Panchayat elections in the State of Assam.

It has also come to our notice from the materials on record that there is a proposal to appoint an Additional State Coordinator. We direct the Registrar General of India to desist from any such move and we make it clear that the State Coordinator Shri Prateek Hajela presently engaged in the work of preparation/upgradation of final draft NRC will continue to carry out the exercise till it reaches its logical end.

No further directions would be required for the present.

The case be listed on 27th March, 2018 at 2.00 p.m. for further monitoring.

SLP(C) NO…….D.NO.13544/2017

De-tagged.

List the matter separately before the appropriate bench.

[VINOD LAKHINA] [ASHA SONI]

AR-cum-PS BRANCH OFFICER