The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission EC to clarify the type of action it will take if a person’s name is not included in the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be published on July 31 next but is found to be included in the electoral rolls.
A report published in the The Times of India stated that the bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SA Nazeer and Justice Sanjeev Khanna asked EC to give data about addition and deletion of names in the voters list as revised in the month of January for 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.
The report further stated that the EC was handed down a deadline of March 28 next by the SC bench directing the former to give full answers to all the queries. There was huge confusion among a large section of people in Assam whether people whose names did not make it to the final draft NRC will be able to cast their votes or not.
However, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Assam, Mukesh Sahu, on Monday allayed fears by stating that any person whose name has been enrolled in the electoral rolls will be able to cast their votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The final draft NRC published last year excluded a little over 40 lakh people from the citizenship register. A total of 2, 17, 60,604 voters are set to exercise their franchise in the three-phased Lok Sabha polls in Assam. While a total of 75,16,284 voters are set to cast their votes during the first phase of polling in Assam on April 11 next, an estimated 68,36,496 voters will cast their votes in the second phase on April 18. A total of 74, 07,824 voters are set to cast their votes in the third phase of polling set for April 23 next.