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| DB directs Govt to constitute SHRC within 4 weeks | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Sept 15: A division bench of the high court today directed government to constitute State Human Rights Commission which is defunct since June 28 last year.
Hearing a Public Interest Litigation, a division bench of Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Hasnain Massodi passed the order after hearing Advocate general Jehagir Iqbal Ganie who produced a communication by additional secretary to government department of law and justice to him.
"All steps have been taken for convening the meeting of the Committee (headed by Chief Minister) as envisaged under section 4 of the SHRC Act. A meeting to appoint the Chairperson and Members, of State Accountability Commission is fixed for 17 September 2015 and immediately thereafter, the meeting to appoint Chairperson and Members of the SHRC shall also be convened," he said.
The additional secretary has stated said since the Government was facing difficulties in appointment of Chairperson and Members of the SHRC in view of non-availability of eligible persons, the State Legislature amended the Jammu and Kashmir Protection of Human Rights Act, 1997 vide Act No. V of 2015 providing that in case there is no Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council, the Leader of Single Largest Group or Party in the Opposition to the Government in the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council shall be deemed to be Member of the Committee. Further, it has been provided that a person appointed as Chairperson or a Member shall hold office for a term of five years from the date of which he enters upon his office or until he attains the age of 75 years, whichever is earlier.
"Successive governments have exhibited complete non-seriousness in constituting J&K State Human Rights Commission right from the date Justice (retd) Syed Bashir Ud-Din retired as chairperson of the commission. The non-seriousness of the government touched the ultimate height on 28-06-2014 when even the acting chairperson Rafiq Fida and his associate member Amlok Singh relinquished their respective office upon completion of their tenure of office," says the PIL filed by an NGO, J&K Peoples Forum.
The petitioner said that the state was under a legal and constitutional obligation to take immediate steps for the constitution of the SHRC consisting of one chairperson and four members.
"More than two thousand cases are pending disposal without any iota of progress from the last one year thus prolonging the agony of thousands of complainants," the petitioner says, stressing that public at large was crying for protection of their basic human rights like electricity, water, eatables and above all the alleged abuses of their basic rights at the hands of civil and police administration on 24 March 2015," the PIL says.
The petitioner said that his forum made a suggestion to the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs to explore the possibility of designating the secretary of the commission as "member Secretary" so that he would be able to at-least complete the basic formalities of issuing process in the cases.
"On the contrary the respondent state amended the eligibility criteria and enhanced the age limit upto 75 years and tenure of office upto 5 years," the petitioner said and prayed the court to issue appropriate direction to the state to take immediate steps for making the appointments of chairperson and four members the Commission. (JNF) |
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