New Delhi, July 31: A day after the final draft of National Register of Citizen (NRC) of Assam was published that excluded more than 40 lakh applicants, the Supreme Court on Tuesday told the government no authority will take any coercive action against those who have been left in the list. "What has been published is a complete draft NRC. It can't be the basis for any action by any authority," a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman said.

The apex court also asked the government to place the standard operating procedure to deal with claims of those excluded from Assam's NRC before it on August 16. "The process (of filing of an objection by those whose names are not in the final draft of NRC) should be fair. The standard operating procedure should be applied," the bench said.

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Meanwhile, Assam's NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela informed the top court that as many as 37.59 lakh applications were rejected and 2.48 lakh applications were put on hold.

Over 40 lakh of the 3.29 crore applicants have been excluded from Assam's draft NRC released on Monday, sparking concerns about their future and triggering a nationwide political row. Applications of 2.89 crore have been approved in the draft list of citizens, which forms part of a long-running campaign against Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 31, 2018 03:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).