diff --git a/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt b/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt
index e489f445c53..aa5de285566 100644
--- a/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ Optimizations
 
 Bug Fixes
 ----------------------
-
+* SOLR-1638: Fixed NullPointerException during import if uniqueKey is not specified
+  in schema (Akshay Ukey via shalin)
 
 
 Other Changes
diff --git a/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/main/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/DataImporter.java b/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/main/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/DataImporter.java
index 7d0c8dc2ff2..bd56e678653 100644
--- a/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/main/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/DataImporter.java
+++ b/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/main/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/DataImporter.java
@@ -149,8 +149,12 @@ public class DataImporter {
   }
 
   private void identifyPk(DataConfig.Entity entity) {
-    String schemaPk = schema.getUniqueKeyField().getName();
-    //if no fields are mentioned . solr uniqeKey is same as dih 'pk'
+    SchemaField uniqueKey = schema.getUniqueKeyField();
+    String schemaPk = "";
+    if (uniqueKey != null)
+      schemaPk = uniqueKey.getName();
+    else return;
+    //if no fields are mentioned . solr uniqueKey is same as dih 'pk'
     entity.pkMappingFromSchema = schemaPk;
     for (DataConfig.Field field : entity.fields) {
       if(field.getName().equals(schemaPk)) {