New Delhi: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on Sunday defended the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam, saying prior to this there was "guesswork" on the number of illegal immigrants in the state that "had fuelled panic, fear and vicious cycle of lawlessness and violence" and it would be a base document for future.

Justice Gogoi, who hails from Assam and is heading an apex court bench monitoring the process of NRC in Assam, was also critical of "arm chair commentators" who, he said, are not only far away from the ground reality but also present a highly distorted picture due to which Assam and its development agenda have taken a hit. Regarding the NRC exercise, he said, "It is an occasion to put things in proper perspective. The NRC is not a document for the moment.