By TCN Staff Reporter,
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh High court has given eight weeks time to the Congress ruled state government to reform the defunct AP Minorities Commission.
High court gave this direction to the state government hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed on December 10, 2012 by practicing advocate Mohammed Aqeel.
First minority commission of the state was founded in 2006 under AP state Minorities Commission Act, 1998. By passing Government Order 12 on March 22, 2006, Yousuf Qureshi was appointed as chairman, Pratap Sinha as vice-chairman, Syed Taraq Quadri and Feroz Begum as members, for the term of three years.
After their term expired in 2009, government didn’t take any interest in appointing new board for the commission thus made it defunct.
Aqeel in his PIL has contended that government is bound to form a new minority’s commission under AP State Minorities Commission Act, 1998, to protect and safeguard the fundamental rights of minorities and to get their problems redress.
High court bench of Chief Justice P.C. Ghose and Justice Vilas Afzulpurkar accepting Aqeel’s contention has given order to the government to reform thecommission within two months.
It is believed that Minorities Commission was made defunct by the Congress government when it started to perceive the commission as a threat, after commission played an active role in Mecca Masjid bomb blast case and the arrest of Muslim youths.
Commission’s active step of appointing Advocate Ravichander to probe the torture and illegal of detention of Muslim youths got minorities’ commission to loggerheads with the government. Ravichander Report by the minorities’ commission was never allowed to be released by the then Rajshekar Reddy government, which had implicated senior police officers.
Also minorities’ commission stint of building pressure on Vijayawada police for fair investigation during Ayesha Meera rape and murder case which seen the involvement of senior congress leaders, didn’t gone down well with the State Govt.