Centre tells SC why Assam NRC rejection slips for 19.07 lakh are pending

The Centre told the Supreme Court that rejection slips for those excluded from Assam's NRC cannot be issued yet. The delay keeps 19.07 lakh people from formally challenging their exclusion before foreigners tribunals.The Centre told the Supreme Court that rejection slips for those excluded from Assam's NRC cannot be issued yet.New Delhi,Oct 3, 2026 15:15 ISTThe Centre has told the Supreme Court that the process of issuing rejection slips to the 19.07 lakh people left out of Assam's National Register of Citizens has not begun because the final NRC is yet to be formally notified.In an affidavit, the Registrar General of India said the state NRC coordinator is still working on a "security regime" for preserving NRC data. It said the data has not yet been handed over to the Registrar General, who can notify the final NRC only after receiving it.According to the final NRC released in August 2019, names of 19.07 lakh applicants were excluded from the list, while 3.11 crore applicants were included.The affidavit said, "Enactment of the security regime for NRC data by the state coordinator is in progress, and hence data has not been shared with the Registrar General of India (RGI)." It added that the process of issuing rejection slips "has not been started yet" by the state NRC coordinator. The Supreme Court had earlier directed the state NRC coordinator to develop a mechanism for issuing rejection slips to those excluded from the final list so that they could approach foreigners tribunals to challenge their rejection. The state NRC coordinator later informed the RGI in October 2020 that rejection slips could be issued only after the final NRC was notified by the Registrar General.The matter came up during the hearing of petitions filed by the Assam State Jamiat Ulama, the All Assam Minority Students Union, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and others, who have sought rejection slips for those excluded from the NRC and NRC cards for those included in the final list. The Supreme Court deferred the matter to November 6 after the Assam government sought time to file its response. - Ends