HC seeks Guj govt's reply on appointments to rights panel

The Gujarat High Court today sought a reply from the state government on a PIL seeking appointment of a chairperson and two members to the state human rights commission, after its only member retires on March 31.

A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi sought to know from the government what steps it was taking to fill up the vacant posts in the Gujarat State Human Rights Commission (GSHRC).

The bench then posted the matter to April 18 for further hearing.

In his PIL, petitioner Chandravadan Dhruv has said as per section 21(2) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, the government is required to appoint a chairperson and two members to the commission.

However, it has not initiated any process to appoint the chairperson of the commission after its last chief, Bhagwati Prasad, passed away in November 2017, the petitioner has said.

One of the panel members, retired IPS officer Sudhir Sinha, retired in November, 2016 after the end of his five-year tenure. His successor has not been named yet, the petitioner has submitted.

The commission's only member, M H Shah, who also acts as the in-charge chairperson, is set to retire on March 31. If fresh appointments were not made in time, the GSHRC would have nobody to look into thousands of cases that were filed with the panel, he said.

As per Supreme Court orders, the government was required to initiate the process for the appointment of chairperson and other members of the GSHRC three months in advance, the PIL noted.

Not filling up key vacant posts in a time-bound manner is a matter of serious concern, Dhruv has said in his PIL, adding that it also amounts to misuse of public funds and shows the government's "carelessness and negligence" towards the matter.