SC Orders Transfer of Assam NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela

Hajela was instrumental in carrying out orders of SC bench headed by CJI in the preparation of draft and final NRC.

File photo of Prateek Hajela.

(Photo: Prateek Hajela)

The Supreme Court on Friday, 18 October, ordered the transfer of Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) Coordinator Prateek Hajela to Madhya Pradesh on inter-cadre deputation for the “maximum period possible”.

The transfer was ordered by a bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde and RF Nariman.

Hajela was instrumental in carrying out orders of the SC bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi in the preparation of draft and final NRC for Assam.

On being asked by Attorney General KK Venugopal if there was any reason for the decision, Gogoi said, “Can any order be passed without cause or reason?” However, he did not mention the reason.

Who is Prateek Hajela?

The 1995 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, appointed the NRC coordinator by the Supreme Court, was in the thick of things while navigating the choppy political waters of the state that was cleaved along communal and linguistic lines over the sensitive issue.

Drawing on his technological expertise, Hajela, who has a BTech degree in Electronics from IIT, Delhi, introduced an innovative mechanism for collecting and collating data of the family tree of every resident of Assam.

The legacy data consisted of the names of residents or their descendants who figured in the first NRC prepared in 1951, or in any of the electoral rolls up to the the midnight of 24 March 1971, or any other admissible document which would prove their presence in Assam or any part of India on or before that date.

Interestingly, the names of Hajela and his daughter were missing from the first NRC draft published on 31 December 2017. The two had then appeared for a hearing after which their names figured in the final draft.

(This is a developing story. More details awaited)

(With inputs from PTI.)