Despite his contributions to human rights jurisprudence of this country, Justice Nariman’s track record is not unblemished. One of the most glaring blots on that track record is his judgment in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) case in 2014.
It is because of this judgment that the NRC process was initiated in Assam, at the directions of Justices Nariman and Ranjan Gogoi – even though the judges referred the provision of the Citizenship Act that allowed it to a larger bench. The NRC exercise has led to uncertainty and suffering for lakhs of people in Assam, and remains inconclusive even now.
What makes this galling was that the Supreme Court, when ordering the NRC, had not sought any actual data on the problem of illegal immigration in Assam
In 2004, the Union Home Ministry had made a statement before the Parliament giving out the number of allegedly illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the country – a staggeringly large figure of 50 lakh.
However, a clarification was added to…