Congress slams appointment of Justice Goel as NGT chief

The Congress on Thursday slammed the government over appointment of Justice A. K. Goel as National Green Tribunal Chairman after his retirement as a Supreme Court judge.

Raising the matter in the Lok Sabha, party member Suresh said the "entire Dalit community has expressed concern over the wrong message sent by the appointment."

Justice Goel had headed the Supreme Court bench which delivered the judgment forbidding immediate arrest under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and Congress and some other parties have alleged that the judgement has "diluted" the Act.

Suresh said the Dalit community is demanding Justice Goel's immediate removal from the Chairmanship of NGT, adding SC/ST members in the ruling National Democratic Alliance had also expressed their concern and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had written a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh in this connection.

He said Dalits in different parts of the country had protested against the judgment.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the retired judge's appointment to NGT indicated that the government supported his judgment.

Justice Goel was earlier this month appointed theChairperson of the National Green Tribunal hours after he retired from the Supreme Court.

Congress members also raised the issue of a UGC circular which mentioned that the numbers of the reserved faculty posts across universities will be calculated department-wise and not on the aggregate vacant posts in a university, and said it will adversely affect the weaker sections.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said that vacancies were not being filed based on the circular and a Special Leave Petition had been filed in the Supreme Court.

--IANS

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