Direction: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government whether it is giving the over 40 lakh people, excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, a “second chance” to gain citizenship by allowing them to produce fresh documents to prove their Indian legacy.
The court was referring to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) proposed by the government, which allows a claimant for Indian citizenship to “change his legacy” by submitting additional documents at the ‘claims and objections’ stage. The court asked whether this would amount to “re-doing the claims” of those left out from the draft NRC published on July 30.
A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Nariman on Tuesday said allowing a claimant to change his legacy would amount to “tinkering with the family tree” and re-doing the verification process.
“You see, a claimant submits documents to prove his legacy from his father. A family tree is drawn, which includes the claimant’s siblings, etc. The authorities verify his claim with each one of the member in the family tree before deciding his claim [for citizenship]. Now, your SOP says that a person can submit fresh documents claiming to prove his legacy from his grandfather. Now, the family tree has to be recreated. Everything has to be re-verified. This amounts to redoing the entire exercise. Why?”, Justice Gogoi asked Attorney General K.K. Venugopal.
Besides, the Bench pointed out, the government, in the beginning, had specified that documents on legacy would be allowed to be filed only once. Now, it has changed tack to permit additional documents to be filed. “Are you not contradicting yourself here?” Justice Gogoi asked Mr. Venugopal.
The court directed Assam State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela to file a report on the ramifications of the government's proposal to submit fresh documents. Mr. Hajela has to file his report before September 5, the next date of hearing.
Meanwhile, the court deferred the receipt of claims and objections to a later date. This stage was supposed to start within the next days, on August 30, and would have continued till October 28.
“Allowing a person to suddenly pull out an additional document, that too at the 'claims and objections' stage, will upset the apple cart,” Justice Nariman observed.
Mr. Venugopal countered that the government is giving “another chance to people who risk losing all their rights”.
To this, Justice Nariman agreed that the court was dealing with “human problems of a huge magnitude”.
“Consequences are so severe that should they be given one more chance. Suppose a claimant has misfired once but can deliver in the next. Why should such a person not be given another chance?” Justice Nariman asked Mr. Hajela, stakeholders and petitioners in the litigation.
To this, Mr. Hajela said reopening of family trees would risk the possibility of “trading of legacies or meeting of minds”. "Giving a second chance would only open trading in legacies. There may be people who are willing to sell the legacies to others,” he said.
The Supreme Court further asked Mr. Hajela to submit a report with a time-frame to carry out the sample re-verification of at least 10 per cent of the names included in the final draft NRC. This is after Mr. Hajela placed before the Bench a district-wise data of the percentage of the population who have been excluded from the final draft NRC.
Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Which among the following is true regarding the new move of the Government regarding the National Register of Citizens in Assam?
Explanation
Refer to, “The court was referring to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) proposed by the government, which allows a claimant for Indian citizenship to “change his legacy” by submitting additional documents at the ‘claims and objections’ stage.”
It implies the fact that the government is ready to accept fresh documents regarding the legacy of a person if the same have not been produced in the first round of verification. Among the given options, Only D implies the same whereas all others are completely out of context as there is no reference to any of them in the passage.
It makes option D the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Which among the following is true regarding the view of the Supreme Court regarding the Standard Operating Procedure announced by the government?
Explanation
Refer to, “The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government whether it is giving the over 40 lakh people, excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, a “second chance” to gain citizenship by allowing them to produce fresh documents to prove their Indian legacy.”
In the above lines it is very clear that the Supreme Court has questioned the Union Government regarding its move to give second chance to the citizens to be included in the National Register of Citizens. The whole passage talks about the displeasure of the Supreme Court regarding the new move by the government.
Among the given options, A is completely out of context since nothing of that sort has been referred to in the passage whereas B is irrelevant since it is also not there in the passage. C is also not correct as there is no reference in the passage regarding the SC giving directions to the High Court to take action in the matter. Option D implies the reaction of the apex court in the rightful manner.
This makes option D the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Which among the following substantiates the observation of the Supreme Court that the government is contradicting its own stand in the issue of National Register of Citizens?
Explanation
Refer to, “Besides, the Bench pointed out, the government, in the beginning, had specified that documents on legacy would be allowed to be filed only once. Now, it has changed tack to permit additional documents to be filed. “Are you not contradicting yourself here?” Justice Gogoi asked Mr. Venugopal.”
It is very clear that the Supreme Court made scathing observations regarding the new move by the government regarding the new Standard Operating Procedure of accepting legacy documents in the claims filing stage.
Among the given options, all are out of context since none of the options has been referred to in the passage except Option C which implies the reason of the observation made by the Supreme Court regarding the new step by the government.
Hence, it makes option C the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Which among the following is a possible consequence of the new standard operating procedure adopted by the Government regarding the National Register of Citizens?
Explanation
Refer to, “To this, Mr. Hajela said reopening of family trees would risk the possibility of “trading of legacies or meeting of minds”. "Giving a second chance would only open trading in legacies. There may be people who are willing to sell the legacies to others,” he said.”
According to the person responsible for the whole exercise in Assam, this new SOP will open the can of worms and there will be widespread corruption in the whole exercise. The citizens will file forged documents and they will try to manipulate the legacies from the actual ones thereby the making the whole exercise futile.
Among the given options, all are out of context alternatives except for option D and E. Now for option E, it is true that the government may have to redo the whole exercise but nowhere in the passage it is mentioned that it will incur double expenses and double manpower and hence, this part is not correct according to the passage.
This makes option D the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Why has the Supreme Court observed that the new move by the government will actually make the government redo the whole exercise?
Explanation
Refer to, “You see, a claimant submits documents to prove his legacy from his father. A family tree is drawn, which includes the claimant’s siblings, etc. The authorities verify his claim with each one of the member in the family tree before deciding his claim [for citizenship]. Now, your SOP says that a person can submit fresh documents claiming to prove his legacy from his grandfather. Now, the family tree has to be recreated. Everything has to be re-verified. This amounts to redoing the entire exercise. Why?”, Justice Gogoi asked Attorney General K.K. Venugopal.”
From the above lines it is very clear that the Supreme Court did not understand the logic behind asking the citizens who were left out to submit the fresh documents at the claims and objections stage. It is like redoing the whole thing from the scratch without any issue.
Among the given options, only C implies the same as in the passage and all the other options can be easily eliminated since they are out of the given context of the passage. There is no reference to all such options in the passage.
It makes option C the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Which among the following is the course of action that has been taken by the Supreme Court regarding re-verification drive of the government under the aegis of National Register of Citizens?
Explanation
Refer to, “Meanwhile, the court deferred the receipt of claims and objections to a later date. This stage was supposed to start within the next days, on August 30, and would have continued till October 28.”
It is implied from the given fragment that the Supreme Court decided to postpone the implementation of the new SOP till further orders since it wants the reply from the government regarding the issues raised in the apex court.
Among the given options, A is out of context, B is partially true since the SC is actually of the view that the government is unable to understand the consequences of this new move but it has not sent the matter to the Parliament. C and E are also not referred to in the passage anywhere. Only D implies the same as has been mentioned the passage.
This makes option D the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Which among the following is true regarding the directions given by the Supreme Court to the NRC Coordinator of Assam regarding the new SOP of the Union Government?
I. Mr Hajela will need to be present before the court on the next date of hearing and on every date of hearing thereafter
II. Mr. Hajela will need to submit a report regarding the possible consequences of the new move by the Union Government regarding the National Register of Citizens
III. Mr. Hajela will look forward to his advocate to defend him since the SC has asked him to appoint an advocate in the personal capacity from the next date of hearing
Explanation
Refer to, “The court directed Assam State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela to file a report on the ramifications of the government's proposal to submit fresh documents. Mr. Hajela has to file his report before September 5, the next date of hearing.”
It is very clear that Statement II is true.
Statement I is not correct since it is not mentioned anywhere in the passage that Mr. Hajela will have to remain present in the court on every date of hearing.
Statement III is also not true since it is completely irrelevant and defies any logic since it is a case concerning Mr. Hajela in an official capacity and not in the personal capacity as has been depicted in this statement.
This makes option C the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Which among the following prompted the Supreme Court to ask the NRC Coordinator to submit a report within a time frame regarding the time required for re-verification on sampling basis?
Explanation
Refer to, “The Supreme Court further asked Mr. Hajela to submit a report with a time-frame to carry out the sample re-verification of at least 10 per cent of the names included in the final draft NRC. This is after Mr. Hajela placed before the Bench a district-wise data of the percentage of the population who have been excluded from the final draft NRC.“
It is implied that the Supreme Court wants to know the time frame that will be taken by the NRC Coordination Committee to carry out the re-verification drive proposed by the government and this became evident to them they went through the list of people excluded from the list of NRC in the first round.
Among the given options, A is out of context, B can be true but it is not explicit from the given passage by any reference, D and E are again logical statements but they don’t find any kind of explicit reference in the whole passage.
This makes option C the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Which among the following is similar in meaning to the word Ramifications as used in the passage?
Explanation
The given word has been used in the sense that the government has to also take into account the consequences of the new move before rolling out any plan though it has done so before launching the new SOP for enrolling of citizens in the National Register of Citizens.
Among the given options, sequels imply the next parts of something whereas articulation implies mentioning something very clearly and materialization implies bringing something into reality. Only consequences means the results of something.
This makes option B the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 95
Try yourself:Which among the following is opposite in meaning to the word deferred as used in the passage?
Explanation
The given word has been used in the context that the Supreme Court postponed the date of commencement of the implementation of the new SOP of the Government. It implies that the date has been postponed to a later date.
Among the given options, hastened refers to hurried whereas advanced means bringing something forward. Accustomed implies that you are habituated to something and fragmented implies that something is in parts and ratified implies that somebody has approved some proposal or law.
This makes option B the correct choice among the given options.
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