The head of the first-of-its-kind panel to study demographic changes in the country said on Wednesday (May 27, 2026) that the government had authorised the committee to invite demographers and experts who can weigh in on the subject and help prepare the report.

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

He said demography and illegal migration were new subjects for him, and the scope of the study was vast, for which they would decide on a procedure soon. He said that his earlier judgments in Supreme Court included the confirmation of the death sentence for Afzal Guru, the convict in the 2001 Parliament terror attack, in 2005, and the 2007 judgment on defining copyright limits on court judgments.

He comes from a third-generation family of lawyers and retired from the Supreme Court in 2008. As an advocate, he has practised in civil, criminal, Constitution, company labour, and service matters.

Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan; retired IAS officer Durga Shanker Mishra, who served as the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh; retired IPS officer Balaji Srivastava, who retired as Director-General of Bureau of Police Research and Development; and Shamika Ravi, who is part of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council; are the members of the committee. The Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I), Home Ministry, is the member secretary of the Committee.

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

A farce, says RJD leader

Manoj Kumar Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal questioned the composition of the committee. “What a farce. A committee constituted to examine ‘demographic change’ appears 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.

Widespread changes: Home Ministry

The Union Home Ministry said on Wednesday that demographic changes in the country were not restricted to border areas alone and were affecting “urban centres, industrial corridors, tribal regions, and other socially and economically sensitive areas”, which impacts public service delivery, local governance, resource distribution, and social cohesion.

In a resolution published in the official gazette, which notified the composition of the committee, the Home Ministry said the panel would also recommend a well-organised and permanent operational system for the legal, fair, and time-bound identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants already residing in the country.

The Ministry said the existing institutional framework was not adequately equipped to undertake coordinated, evidence-based, and time-bound evaluation and response to such demographic shifts, adding that extensive challenges had arisen from demographic changes, including due to illegal immigration. It said the demographic changes observed in certain regions of the country were not attributable to normal fertility or mortality trends but were instead emerging due to external abnormal factors such as illegal immigration, irregular population mobility, and administrative laxity.

It said the committee would propose a comprehensive policy framework to enhance coordination between the Union and State governments in matters related to illegal immigration and resultant demographic imbalance.

The committee will have the authority to requisition any information, records, or documents necessary for its work from any Ministry, Department, State government, public authority, or individual and will have the power to determine its own procedures for inquiry, consultation, analysis, and submission of its report, the Ministry said. The committee, with the prior approval of the Home Ministry, may constitute sub-committees and/or working groups to undertake any inquiry, consultation, or analysis.

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