Appointment of Chairperson fo SHRC: HC grants eight weeks time

Tamil Nadu government is taking steps to amend the State Human Rights Commission Act so as to allow a retired High Court judge to head the panel, doing away with the exisisting clause that mandated appointment of a retired High Court Chief Justice to the post.
As no retired Chief Justice of High Court is available to fill in the role of the Commission, effective steps are being taken to amend the State Human Rights Commission Act so that a retired High Court Judge can be appointed to head the panel, Advocate General A L Somayaji told the High Court first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sathyanarayanan.

A petition was filed by Sundaravadanam, an advocate, earlier seeking a direction to the Chief Secretary to issue orders for the appointment of Chairperson to the Commission.
The Court then directed the Chief Secretary to fill the post within three months.
As the order was not implemented, Sundaravadanam filed a contempt petition to punish the authority for non-implementation of the order.
The bench, after recording the submission by the Advocate General, gave eight weeks time to the authorities to carry out the necessary exercise and posted the matter to October 6.