New Delhi, Jul 19 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Centre and the Assam government's request seeking extension on the publication of the final NRC citing 20 per cent re-verification of the draft NRC data to rule out discrepancies. The NRC is scheduled for publication on July 31.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and Assam, said: "We cannot afford to become the refugee capital in the world." He demanded extension for re-verification.

Mehta contended that there was a growing perception that exclusions and inclusions had been made in the list in a wrong manner.

"Apparently, there are more wrong inclusions on the list due to corrupt practices by lower level officers. Therefore, we need re-verification. We have experienced this wrongful inclusion in districts sharing the border with Bangladesh," Mehta argued vehemently, highlighting the gravity of the matter.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi made an oral observation that NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela's report claimed that nearly 80 lakh names had already been verified.

"In such a scenario, why is there a need for a sample re-verification? If we are satisfied that verification has been done properly, then there is no need for a sample re-verification, don't you think," the CJI shot back at Mehta.

To this, Mehta replied that re-verification will help the authorities weed out illegal immigrants who have bribed NRC officials to get their names on the list.