New Delhi, Dec 11: Popular Front of India has welcomed the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, which was delivered in the matter of Assam citizenship rights case restoring the validity of the Panchayath Certificate as sufficient proof of citizenship.
The chairman E. Abubacker said in the statement that lakhs and lakhs of original inhabitants of Assam consisting of Bengali speaking Muslims and Hindus, were tagged as Bangladeshis because of the conspiracy the hatched by communal elements since 1977. There was a long battle going on to prove their citizenship on different occasions by fighting different laws, notifications, Government Orders, etc. The burden of proving their citizenship was attributed to the victims.
On 17TH December 2014, the apex court ordered the central and state governments to prepare and upgrade the draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the deadline to publish the draft is 31st December 2017. The NRC is the register containing details of all Indian citizens. After conducting the Census of 1951, the NRC was prepared by recording particulars of all the persons enumerated during the 1951 Census. The updation or upgradation of NRC is the process of enlisting the names of all citizens residing in Assam at the time of NRC updation.
The updation was going on for the past three years. Any one of the fourteen listed government documents of the victims were considered sufficient to get them registered in the NRC. The Local Panchayath Certificate was one of those documents. Around 48 lakh people including Hindus and Adivasis submitted this certificate before the authorities. Most of them were Muslims and half of them were women. On 28th February of this year, Guwahati High Court made null and void the validity of the panchayath certificates, which were submitted before the NRC authorities. It was challenged before the apex court by different organizations through the victims. Now a Bench of Supreme Court consisting of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton F Nariman set aside the order of the Guwahati High Court.
Mr. E. Abubacker told that this order will provide relief to almost 47.09 lakh applicants, who use the panchayat document to establish linkage with their father and husband.
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