HC seeks Guj govt's reply on vacant post of SHRC chairman

The Gujarat High Court today asked the state government to file a reply by April 27 as to why the post of the chairman of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has remained vacant.
Based on a PIL questioning the state government's delay in appointing the SHRC chief, the court had on January 15 served a notice to the government and asked it to file the reply by February 9. However, the government had failed to submit its reply on time.
In its fresh order, the division bench of Chief Justice S Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi today asked the government to strictly adhere to the April 27 deadline.

Government lawyers today orally submitted before the court that government had approached retired chief justices for the post but none of them expressed interest in it, which is why it could not be filled.
The post has been lying vacant since October 16 last year. It was earlier held by Justice J N Bhatt who retired after turning 70. Only a retired chief justice can become the chairman of SHRC.
Petitioner Chandravadan Dhruv had questioned the government's intention to keep the post of chairman of SHRC vacant and asked the respondents, including the Governor, the Chief Minister and the Home Minister and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), to make the appointment to the post "on an urgent basis in larger public interest."

"It is the moral responsibility of the honourable Governor to appoint a chairperson in the state and also to keep in view that the post of SHRC chairperson should not be vacant and also to keep in view that the main purpose of appointment of the chairperson may also be served," the PIL stated.
Dhruv also said in his plea that retired judicial officer M H Shah, a member of SHRC, should have been given the charge instead of retired IPS officer Sudhir Sinha who is a non-judicial member of the Commission.