SC orders immediate transfer of Assam NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela to Madhya Pradesh

Last month, two cases were registered against Hajela by Assam Police following complaints of wrongful exclusions in the citizens’ list published on August 31.

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | Updated: October 18, 2019 02:36 PM IST

2 min read

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National Register of Citizens coordinator Prateek Hajela.

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre and Assam government to transfer National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator Prateek Hajela to Madhya Pradesh for maximum period permissible under relevant guidelines with immediate effect.

The direction came apparently on account of threat perceptions to Hajela, PTI reported. The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde and R F Nariman.

To a query from Attorney General K K Venugopal if there was a reason behind the decision, CJI Gogoi said, “Can there be any order without a reason?”. The CJI, however, did not specify any reason.

Last month, two cases were registered against Hajela by Assam Police following complaints of wrongful exclusions in the citizens’ list published on August 31.

Hajela, as the Supreme Court mandated coordinator of NRC, was involved in the exercise since September 2013 and was responsible for creating a “legacy data” system.

A total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC. Of them, 3,11,21,004 have been included in the document and 19,06,657 excluded, the NRC State Coordinator’s office had said on Saturday.

The next hearing on NRC is slated for November 26.

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