New Delhi, August 7: The Supreme Court on Tuesday held Assam co-coordinator of the National Register for Citizens (NRC) Prateek Hajela and Registrar General of India guilty of contempt of court. The top court also reprimanded both Hajela and the Registrar General of India for making statements to media on the NRC Assam modalities when nothing had been informed to the court. The Court said, "You are guilty (Assam NRC Coordination and Registrar General of India) of contempt of court. Why Hajela and the Registrar General made any statements to media on NRC Assam modalities when nothing had been informed to the court."

On July 30, the second draft that was released included names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants in Assam. It left out names of nearly 40 lakh people. On July 31, the court while hearing the case observed that the process of filing objections by those whose names were not listed in the NRC draft should be fair.

A division bench of the top court, headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, also directed the Centre to prepare standard operating procedure (SOP) for claims and objections. The court had directed Hajela and the central government to submit before the court the process or modalities they would follow to file the objections.

The first draft of the NRC for Assam was released on the intervening night of December 31, 2017 and January 1 which included names of 1.9 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The NRC draft for Assam features the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971.