New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its displeasure over inordinate delay in the appointment of members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) including its Director General (Investigation) – posts which are vacant for nearly two and half years.
Expressing its anguish, the bench of Chief Justice T.S.Thakur and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud wanted to know the cause of delay in appointing the member NHRC and its DG, Investigation – who is an Indian Police Service officer of director general rank.
The post of the member NHRC is lying vacant since March 1, 2014 and that of DG, Investigation since October 31, 2014.
In a series of posers, the court asked when the Committee was established for selection of the member for appointment to NHRC and if any decision was taken at any point of time.
The court sought response to these questions as it was told that on October 10 this year the government was communicated that the Chairman, NHRC, Justice H.L.Dattu has given his nod for the appointment of one IPS officer as DG (Investigatiuon) and necessary follow up action is being taken in this regard.
The queries by the bench came in the course of the hearing of a PIL by an advocate Radhakanta Tripathy who has contended that the two vacancies have severely hampered the functioning of the human rights body as the single member bench was unable to shoulder the burden of immense volume of cases pending before it.
The petitioner has contended that the appointment procedure is at variance with the UN Guidelines for the Establishment of National Human Rights Institutions – also called UN Paris Principles – which emphasises on the independence, diversity, impartiality, and fairness of the rights body.
Paris Principles’ require the rights panels to be autonomous and independent of the government in all their functioning, he contended.