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There has been widespread anxiety around documentation required to prove one’s citizenship should an exercise be ever be conducted to create a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC). Though the central government has been saying that such a move has not even been officially discussed yet, fears grew in wake of three key events:
The publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam that left out over 19 lakh people
The passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)
The decision to conduct an exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR) along with the census, as well as a bid to conflate the two processes as one
There has been panic among people in wake of all of the above and many have been running from pillar to post, from one municipal office to another to get their documents in order. However, given what transpired in Assam, where minor discrepancies in the name of a person on official documents caused them to be declared ‘foreigner’ and landed them in detention camps, people have also been trying to get these discrepancies corrected in their own documents. One such document if the School Leaving Certificate (SLC).
Now, SabrangINdia has learned that the Education Department of the Government of Maharashtra might permit minor corrections and changes in line with a 2017 judgment delivered by the Bombay High Court. This move comes after anti-NPR/NRC activists made a representation to the concerned minister and officials. CJP has been campaigning for just such a notification, given the order of the Bombay High Court.
In 2017, the Bombay High Court had passed a landmark judgment wherein they had made a series of important observations. For instance, when it comes to SLCs of first generation learners from rural and impoverished backgrounds, the court observed, “One cannot be oblivious to the fact that even as on date, the level of literacy in the villages is abysmal. The situation of literacy, even in the cities in so far as persons below the poverty level is concerned, is also not that good. In such situations when a child gets admission in a school, for the first time, the chance of errors occurring in the entries in the General Register of the School, due to improper understanding of the parents, of the importance of the entries in the General Register in the School cannot be ruled out.”
The court had ruled, “An application for alteration in the entries in the General Register is permissible, with the previous permission of the appropriate authority at any time when the pupil is attending the school.” Additionally, “No application for alteration in the figure of date of birth is permissible, after the student has left secondary school, except correction in the nature of ‘obvious mistakes’ as indicated in Clause 26.3 i.e. of a nature where the date of a particular month which does not exist in the calendar and likewise.”
However it granted permission for changes in certain instances stating, “… an application for change in the name, surname or caste, either due to reasons / cause unnoticed before or even occurring subsequently, being errors which fall within the category of ‘obvious mistakes’, can be made, even after the student has left school in light of the language of Clause 26.3 in the manner as indicated by Appendix Six in the forms as prescribed in the S.S. Code.”
The entire Bombay High Court judgment may be read here: