SC orders transfer of Assam NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela to MP on deputation

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the transfer of Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) Coordinator Prateek Hajela to Madhya Pradesh on deputation. The order was passed by the top court bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi.

However, the bench did not specify the reason why NRC Coordinator Hajela was transferred to Madhya Pradesh.

The top court also directed the Centre to notify the transfer within seven days. 

At the hearing, Attorney General KK Venugopal asked Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi if there was a reason for the transfer, to which the CJI responded, "is there a transfer without a reason?". But he refused to divulge it.

A 1995-batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Hajela was tasked with supervising the gigantic National Register of Citizens updation in Assam. The final NRC list was published on August 31, from which 19 lakh people were excluded.

Hajela, who is from Madhya Pradesh, had submitted a confidential report to the Supreme Court in which he is believed to have sought the transfer away from Assam, that has been cleaved along communal and linguistic lines over the sensitive issue of NRC.

He was also booked twice in the last month for alleged “discrepancies” in the final NRC list published on August 31. 

An indigenous organisation alleged that “even when people had correct documents NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela intentionally excluded the names of Goriya, Moriya and many indigenous sons of the soil”.