The process of verification for those 29 lakh married women who were ruled out from the first draft of NRC will be carried out from 2nd of April. In lieu of Supreme Court’s exercise to update the 1951 National Register of Citizenship, citizenship documents verification of the 29 lakh married women shall be done.
Most of them who have submitted panchayat certificates as their address proof were left out from the first draft as Gauhati High Court declared that the panchayat certificate had no statutory sanctity. However, Supreme Court intervened to set aside the decision of Gauhati High Court and commented that panchayat certificates can be used to claim citizenship.
According to the authorities, the court had assigned them to check authenticity of the documents, examine the evidence based on which each certificate was issued originally and give opportunities to those who want to place their case. Describing the verification process they said, it requires a hearing based system under which each married woman would be called to a location close to the gram panchayat from where she had obtained her domicile certificate.
Morewover, the gram panchayat secretaries shall also be asked to produce evidence supporting their issue of certificate to these 29 lakh married women along with each woman who has to produce evidence, written or oral.
Soon after the procedure is over and verification of link documents is done, the second NRC draft shall be published. A link document is a piece of documentary evidence that the NRC authorities sought to prove an applicant’s residency in Assam through the lineage of his or her parents or grandparents before March 31st, 1971.
