New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered transfer of state coordinator for National Register of Citizens (NRC) Prateek Hajela to Madhya Pradesh on deputation. On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered Centre Government and Assam state government to send Hajela to Madhya Pradesh for ‘maximum period possible’.
Hajela, the man behind the NRC task in Assam, was working since 2013 under the direct supervision of Supreme Court.
However, the SC bench has refused to give any reason for the transfer.
When the attorney general KK Venugopal tried to know the reason, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) replied, “Can there be any order without a reason?’ The order was passed by the SC bench, comprises of CJI Justice Rajan Gogai, Justice SA Bobde and RF Nariman. The SC-appointed Prateek Hajela is a 1995 IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre and the state coordinator for NRC task, in which Hajela to draft the NRC. It was said that during the making of NRC draft, Hajela and his team had made many people against them, specially local politicians, who failed to include their men’s names in NRC, without following the official procedures set by the Supreme Court. This create a hostile condition for Hajela,. He received threat to his life. It is assumed that this may be a strong reason for SC to pass such order.
For NRC, one has to proof his/her name in first draft of NRC made in 1951 or any document that prove that the person was living in India before 24 March, 1971. It is said that an engineer with BTech degree from IIT, Delhi, Hajela is originally belongs to Madhya Pradesh.
NRC in numbers:
People applied for NRC- 3,30,27,661.
People included into NRC after document verification- 3,11,21,004.
People excluded from NRC- 19,06,657.
Time taken in draft process- 5 years.
Total expense from public exchequer- Rupees 1200 crores.
People spent for documentation ( as claimed by citizen right groups) – Rupees 7800 crores
Next hearing in SC on- 26/11/2019.
