The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register, or official record, intended to contain the names of all genuine Indian citizens. It is a concept and an administrative exercise mandated by the Citizenship Act, 1955, specifically through the 2003 amendment which introduced the provision for compulsory registration of every Indian citizen. The original NRC was first prepared in 1951 following the Census of India, but it was not maintained afterwards. The primary purpose of the NRC is to identify and document legal citizens to differentiate them from illegal immigrants, particularly in the context of the state of Assam.
The mechanism for the NRC is detailed in The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. For Assam, the process was updated under the supervision of the Supreme Court, beginning in 2013. The key provision for inclusion in the Assam NRC is proving that a person or their ancestors were residents of India on or before the cut-off date of midnight, March 24, 1971, a date established by the Assam Accord, 1985. Applicants must provide documentary evidence, or "Legacy Data," to establish this link. Those excluded from the final list, which was published on August 31, 2019, must appeal their case before special quasi-judicial bodies called Foreigners Tribunals.
The NRC is closely connected to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which was enacted on December 11, 2019. The CAA amends the Citizenship Act, 1955, to provide a path to citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who entered India before December 31, 2014. Critics argue that the CAA, when combined with a potential nationwide NRC, could offer protection to non-Muslims excluded from the NRC while leaving Muslims vulnerable to being declared illegal immigrants and potentially stateless. While the NRC has been implemented only in Assam, the government has declared its intention to extend the exercise to the entire country.