The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended the last date for filing claims and objections for inclusion of names in the National Register of Citizens from December 15 to 31. It also deferred the date for commencing claims verification from February 1 to 15, 2019.

“The last date for submission of claims and objections fixed on December 15, 2018, is extended to December 31, 2018. Consequently, the process of commencement of verification scheduled earlier on February 1, 2019, is shifted to February 15, 2019,” a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R.F. Nariman said.

To facilitate filing of objections against wrongful inclusions, the court directed that copies of the draft NRC be made available for inspection of all concerned at convenient locations such as office of the district magistrate/deputy commissioner, sub-divisional offices (civil), circle offices and gram panchayats.

The bench also directed that objections against wrongful inclusions in the draft NRC can be filed at the nodal offices of the NRC located at the district headquarters.

On November 1 this year, the court had set December 15 as the deadline for filing claims and objections and February 1 as the date for commencement of verification of claims for inclusion of names in NRC by those who were left out of the final draft.

The final draft NRC, published on July 30, had left out 40,07,707 of the 3,29,91,384 applicants. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and 2,48,077 are on hold. NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela informed the court on Wednesday that of those left out, 14.8 lakh have filed claims so far.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Assam government, said there has been a surge in applications in the last few weeks and, hence the deadline be extended till December 31 to enable more claimants to file claims/objections. The bench sought the views of Hajela, who concurred with the law officer’s plea.

The court extended the deadline by 15 days after the Assam government filed a petition in the court.

Santanu Bharali, legal adviser to Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, said the state government had filed a petition in the apex court seeking an extension of the time frame for filing claims and objections by one month and the Supreme Court, in view of the petition, on Wednesday extended the last date.

Dispur cited panchayat polls and the need for creating more awareness about the standard operating procedures on claims and objections as the reasons for seeking more time from the top court.

The bench also conceded the plea of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for some claimants, that the list of documents for verification furnished by them should be accepted by the NRC authorities irrespective of their date of issuance. He said officials are accepting only documents issued prior to August 31, 2015, which was the deadline for registration of names in the draft NRC.

“We direct the NRC authorities to accept such documents which are legally valid and permissible regardless of the date of issuance of such documents,” the bench said.

NRC claimants can now stake claim with the help of all 15 documents in List-A of the claims form. The court had earlier overruled Hajela’s proposal that five documents be dropped.