Image Courtesy: thenation.com
The Supreme Court has directed the Assam government to ensure that no children of parents whose names have been included in the updated list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be sent to detention centres or separated from their parents until an application filed by the Citizens for Justice & Peace, Mumbai is fully considered. CJP had filed an Intervention Application in the ASSAM NRC matter (Assam Public Works v/s Union of India) pointing out that hundreds of not hundreds of thousands of children had been excluded from the NRC when their parents had been included. The IA Nos 181511/2019 was filed in late November 2019, details a sample list of 61 such names of children from various districts in Assam. The IA has prayed for directions from the SC that “the Coordinator to immediately take steps to ensure that no child is left out of the NRC especially in cases where the parents/guardians/caregivers are in the list and that pending hearing and final disposal of the present Application, pass orders directing the Respondent State not to take any coercive action against the children or separate them from their families.”