Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a meeting on Saturday (June 13, 2026) where he directed officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to ensure proper facilitation of the High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes, Ministry officials said.

The Committee was formally constituted on May 26 and held its first meeting on June 2, around a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it. Headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar, the panel is expected to visit border districts, metropolitan areas, and industrial towns to study demographic changes, especially caused by illegal immigration.

A senior official said that the committee has already been convened and its agenda has been formulated. The MHA will provide logistical and other necessary support for its proper functioning, the official added.

Support meeting

Saturday’s (June 13) meeting was attended by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Tapan Kumar Deka, Additional Secretary Nilesh Kumar Vyas, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, and other Ministry officials. Mr. Narayan is the only member of the panel who attended Saturday’s meeting.

As reported by The Hindu, the committee met for the first time on June 2 where it was decided to also study the exclusion of names from the voters list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise that has been conducted in 13 States and Union Territories so far. The panel has asked for documents from several government departments.

To recommend detention, deportation system

According to the terms of reference of the committee, its mandate is to study the demographic changes arising from illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons, and also recommend an appropriate institutional mechanism for “population stabilisation.” The notification added that the panel will 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 other members of the panel are retired IAS officer Durga Shanker Mishra who served as Uttar Pradesh’s chief secretary, retired IPS officer Balaji Srivastava who served as Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development, and Shamika Ravi, a member of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council. The Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I), MHA is the member secretary of the committee.