Exclusion from the final citizenship list will not make any Assam resident "stateless," Indian government said on Sunday.
"It also does not make him or her a 'foreigner' within the legal meaning of the term. They will not be deprived of any rights or entitlements, which they enjoyed earlier," the Indian high commission said in a statement.
Only a judicial process may declare a person foreigner within the meaning of the Foreigners' Act of 1947.
The statement was issued a day after the publication of final list under the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, apparently to remove apprehension over the NRC in public mind.
"To ensure the privacy of all 1.9 million persons, who are excluded from the list, the names are NOT being made available publicly, to protect their privacy. However, the concerned individuals can see the outcome of their applications online."
Anyone excluded from the list at this stage has a right to file an appeal within 120 days of receiving (individually) a notification of his or her exclusion to the designated Tribunal constituted under the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, the statement said.
All appeals and excluded cases will be examined by this Tribunal, which is a judicial process. This judicial process will commence only after the appellate period is over (likely after December 31, 2019).
"Thereafter, anyone still aggrieved by any decision of being excluded will have the right to approach the High Court of Assam against his or her exclusion from the NRC. There will still be recourse to the Supreme Court of India after that."
It also noted that any person seeking legal assistance will be given help by the government of Assam.
"This is a statutory transparent, legal process mandated and monitored closely by the Supreme Court of India. It aims to give effect to the Assam Accord signed in 1985 between the government of India, state government of Assam, the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and All Assam Gan Sangram Parishad (AAGSP)."
"This is not an executive-driven process. The process is being monitored by the Supreme Court of India directly. It has set the deadlines for all steps that have been taken so far."
Inclusion in the NRC is unique because it is an application-based process, and not house to house enumeration process.
That means any person in Assam could have sought to be included in the list on the basis of having documentation to prove lineage from an 'entitled' person, ie, a person who was a resident of Assam as on March 24, 1971.
"This is a non-discriminatory process. This can be seen from the application form that was used for update of National Register of Citizens, Assam. There was no column in the application asking for religion of the applicant."
"The State of Assam has already publicly announced that it would offer free legal assistance to any person excluded from the list, who is unable to afford such legal assistance. This is to enable people to make the best case for being included in the list," according to the statement.
To expedite the process of receiving applications for inclusion, the state government is adding a further 200 tribunals to the existing 100 tribunals.
These extra tribunals will come into effect from September 2, 2019.
A further 200 more tribunals will be set up by the state of Assam by December 2019.
"These Tribunals will be set up at Block level for convenience of the appellants." said the statement.
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