Seven years on, how Assam’s NRC process remains incomplete

Nearly seven years after the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam was published, the exercise is at a standstill — neither have identity cards been issued for those included, nor has the the appeal process begun for those excluded.A Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, has issued notice on a writ petition filed by the Assam State Jamiat Ulama that seeks directions to the Centre to finish these last statutory steps.More than 3.11 crore people whose names appear in the NRC have not received their national identity cards. Around 19 lakh people excluded from the register have been unable to challenge that exclusion, because they were never issued rejection slips stating the reasons. The petition says that this