The Maharashtra Government told the Bombay High Court on Friday that it will appoint Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission’s chairperson before December 10, which is International Human Rights Day.
Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M.S. Karnik that the file is with the Governor and the appointment will be made before December 10.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Vaishnavi Gholave, 23, through advocate Vinod Sangvikar. The PIL mentions on March 6, 2001, the commission was constituted, and it consists of one chairman, one judicial member, one expert member, one secretary and one special inspector general of police.
“There have been no regular appointments made from July 2018 onwards. On April 27, 2021, the acting chairperson, the only adjudicating member retired,” it states. On May 25, 2021, Ms. Gholave filed a Right to Information query seeking details on the vacant posts in the commission.
On May 28, she received responses that, “out of the total sanctioned 51 posts only 26 posts are filled, and the rest 25 posts are vacant. All three adjudicatory members’ posts are lying vacant, and the post of Chairperson has been vacant for more than three years.”
The PIL adds, “The commission has 21,545 pending cases till the month of March 2021 which is the highest in a decade and the inaction of the State Government, is only to be blamed for this sorry state of affairs.”
