SC raps NRC officials, says focus on error-free list of citizens
New Delhi, Aug 7 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday told Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) Coordinator Prateek Hajela to ensure an error-free final NRC, instead of giving interviews to the media.
The bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman warned Hajela, and Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RGCC) Sailesh to be "cautious in future".
Hajela had told the media that any valid document would be accepted as proof of citizenship during the hearing on complaints and objections by those left out in the draft NRC.
Taking suo motu cognizance of Hajela's interview to a national daily, Justice Gogoi said: "Where is the necessity, scope and authority in you to make such a statement? Your job is to carry on with the draft and prepare the final NRC."
Displeased over the action of Hajela, Justice Nariman said: "Speaking for myself, I was appalled by your action... And don't forget you are an officer of the court."
Telling Hajela that "whatever you say, reflects on us", the bench asked: "Should we send you both (including RGCC) to jail for contempt?"
The court told Hajela that he was first an officer of the court and should not have spoken to the media about the NRC.
"It is most unfortunate on your part as well as the RGCC. Your job is to prepare the final NRC. Your job is not to go to press holding brief for somebody," the bench said.
The court reminded RGCC Sailesh that on an earlier occasion, too, he was warned by the court on his actions vis-a-vis preparation of the NRC.
"And you, we had warned you before," Justice Gogoi told Sailesh.
At the outset of the hearing, Justice Gogoi, holding the copy of the newspaper in which Hajela had given the interview about ongoing exercise for preparing final NRC for Assam, asked him "what is this?
"Are you in any manner concerned with the claims and objections? What is this question of new documents", Justice Gogoi asked Hajela telling him that his job was only to carry on with the draft NRC and prepare final citizens register.
Justice Gogoi also read out the order passed by the court in its last hearing on July 31.
In its last order, the court had said: "... what has been published is only the Complete Draft NRC which naturally being a draft cannot be the basis of any action by any authority."
The court had also recorded the statement of Attorney General K.K. Venugopal that the Central government was in the process of "preparing modalities in the form of standard operating procedures" to deal with claims and objections through a fair process.
Having hauled up Hajela and RGCC Sailesh for exceeding their brief and speaking to the media, the court said that next hearing on the matter would take place on August 16 when court would consider the standard operating procedures being prepared by the Centre for dealing with claims and objections to the draft NRC.
In pursuance to July 2 top court's direction, the draft NRC was published on July 30.
It will also pass further orders with regard to the time schedule and different steps that would be undertaken for preparig the final NRC.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
