An Open Access Journal from The Law Brigade (Publishing) Group 274 certificate as linkage documents. Out of these women approximately 1.7 million women were brought under "original inhabitants" status by August 2018 - a privileged category and were exempted from the stringent verification process. However, Muslims and Bengali Hindus, didn’t fall under the category, thus despite being from one of the most marginalized social groups, Muslim women from the Char areas had to go through a stringent verification process. Another reason that is equally responsible for making the char women most vulnerable in the NRC updating process is the feudal legacy and continuance of core patriarchal practices like child marriagexvi. A large number of residents belonging to over 200 households in the remote Mazidbhita village, an island off the Beki river, have been excluded, wherein most of them were mostly women and children. Similarly, hundreds of women hailing from Alipurduar and who were married in the neighboring state of Assam failed to make it to the final list of the NRCxvii. Detention Centers Reports by the special monitor of the National Human Rights Commissioner, who visited, these detention centers for NRC in January 2018 – housing hundreds of women, children and men – noted the conditions as violative of domestic legal standards and many international human rights standards. The monitor also found that children above six years were separated from their families, and women were not incarcerated with their husbands either. Many had not met their spouse for years and were neither given parole or permission to meetxviii. Only three of the 28 people who so far died at detention camps in Assam had their addresses in Bangladeshxix. In the absence clarity on its policy, those incarcerated fear they be held captive in perpetuityxx. SUPREME COURT AND NRC The NRC update came under the aegis of the Supreme Court through its order in the case of Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha v. Union of India dated December 17, 2014.xxi The Mahasangha had challenged section 6A of the Citizenship Act that had been enacted to give effect to the Assam Accord by providing separate rules of citizenship in the state. Under JOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES AND RESEARCH Volume 6 Issue 4 – ISSN 2455 2437 August 2020 www.thelawbrigade.com Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3665733

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