The head of the demographic panel says that the subject is new to him, he will consult with experts

The head of a first-of-its-kind panel looking into the country’s demographic changes said on Wednesday (May 27, 2026) that the government has mandated the committee to invite demographers and experts who can weigh in on the issue and help prepare the report.

Retired Supreme Court judge Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar, 83, told The Hindu that the government’s decision to appoint him as the head of the High Level Committee on Demographic Change (HLCDC) came as a surprise. “I have been living in Jabalpur since 2016, after I retired as Lokayukta of Madhya Pradesh. Even I was surprised when they announced my name. I will reach Delhi soon and call a meeting of all the other members of the panel,” he said.

According to him, demography and illegal migration are new topics for him and the scope of the study is huge, the procedure will be decided soon. He said his earlier Supreme Court judgments included upholding the death sentence of Afzal Guru, convicted of the 2001 terror attack on Parliament, in 2005 and a 2007 judgment defining copyright limits on court judgments.

He comes from a family of third-generation lawyers and retired from the Supreme Court in 2008. As a lawyer, he practiced in civil, criminal, constitutional, corporate and service matters.

Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan; retired IAS officer Durga Shanker Mishra, who served as chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh; retired IPS officer Balaji Srivastava, who retired as director general of the Police Research and Development Authority; and Shamika Ravi, who is part of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council; are committee members. The Member Secretary of the Committee is the Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I), Ministry of Home Affairs.

The panel’s office will be located in Delhi and it is expected to submit its report in a year.

A farce, says the RJD leader

Manoj Kumar Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal questioned the composition of the committee. “What a farce. The committee set up to look into ‘demographic change’ seems to have no demographer. A committee on demographic change without demographers is like a ‘medical board’ without doctors; heavy on administration, light on knowledge,” Mr Jha said on X.

Extensive changes: Ministry of the Interior

The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday said the country’s demographic changes are not limited to border areas and are affecting “urban centres, industrial corridors, tribal regions and other socially and economically sensitive areas”, impacting public service delivery, local governance, resource distribution and social cohesion.

In a resolution published in the official gazette announcing the composition of the committee, the interior ministry said the panel would also recommend a well-organized and permanent operational system for the legal, fair and time-bound identification, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants already in the country.

The ministry said the existing institutional framework is not well equipped to conduct a coordinated, evidence-based and time-bound assessment and response to such demographic changes, adding that demographic changes, including illegal immigration, have created widespread problems. She stated that the demographic changes observed in some regions of the country cannot be attributed to normal birth or death trends, but appear as a result of external abnormal factors such as illegal immigration, irregular population mobility and administrative laxity.

The committee said it will propose a comprehensive policy framework to strengthen coordination between the Union and state governments on matters related to illegal immigration and the resulting demographic imbalance.

The committee will have the power to request any information, records or documents necessary for its work from any department, ministry, state government, public body or individual and will have the power to establish its own procedures for enquiry, consultation, analysis and submission of its report, the ministry said. The Committee may, with the prior approval of the Home Office, establish sub-committees and/or working groups to undertake any investigation, consultation or analysis.

The setting up of the committee was announced by Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, almost a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a demographic mission was in the works.

Published – 27 May 2026 21:13 IST