The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended till December 31 the deadline for receiving claims and objections on inclusion of names in the National Register for Citizens in Assam.

“The last date for submission of claims and objections fixed on December 15 is extended to December 31. Consequently, the process of commencement of verification scheduled earlier on February 1, 2019, is shifted to February 15, 2019. All concerned to act accordingly,” a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman ordered.

The court's order was passed on an application filed by the Assam Government.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state government, said that out of 40.70 lakh left out, so far 14.28 lakh persons have filed the claims and objections with the authorities for inclusion in the NRC. There has been a surge in such applications in last few weeks and so, the deadline be extended by one more month, he said.

The court, however, agreed for extending the deadline by 15 days.

It also directed the authorities to accept validly issued documents regardless of the date of such certificate for accepting the claims of the people for inclusion in the NRC. “Naturally, such acceptance would be on adequate and full satisfaction of the concerned NRC authority who will be free to act on the basis of such satisfaction,” the court said.

In the NRC list published on July 30, out of 3.29 crore people, the names of 2.89 crore were included. The names of 40,70,707 people do not figure in the list. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are put on hold.