The Hindu : Selection of rights panel members: court seeks files

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 09, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Selection of rights panel members: court seeks files

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, MARCH 8 . A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court today directed the Additional Advocate General, V.K. Beeran, to produce tomorrow the files relating to the selection of the two new State Human Rights Commission members.

The Bench, comprising the Acting Chief Justice, N.K. Sodhi, and Justice K.K. Dinesan, issued the directive when the writ petitions filed by the Leader of the Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, and Jomon Puthenpurackal challenging the appointment of V.P. Mohankumar and S. Varghese as members of the State Human Rights Commission came before it.

According to the petitioners, the constitution of the State Human Rights Commission could not be done in a piecemeal manner. As per Section 21 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, the Commission should consist of a chairperson and four members. Therefore, in order to have a State Human Rights Commission, there must be a chairperson and four other members. The petitioners contended that Section 21 did not contemplate appointment of a member alone or chairperson alone. The selection committee consisting of its chairman and Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, the Speaker, Vakkom Purushothaman, and the Leader of the Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan met on January 3, 2004. There was no unanimous recommendation made by the committee as contemplated under Section 22 of the Act. There was "only a partial recommendation" by the committee as the Opposition leader took objection to the suggestion of the names.

In a counter-affidavit, the Chief Secretary pointed out that except stating at the beginning of the meeting held on January 3 that he was sponsoring Justice Narayana Kurup, the Leader of the Opposition did not express his dissent to the proposal for the appointment of Mr. Mohankumar and Mr. Varghese as members of the Commission. Besides, he did not press for the appointment of Justice Narayana Kurup. Nor Mr. Achuthanandan did insist on any written minutes of the committee meeting.

Deposit provision

The Bench also dismissed a writ petition challenging Section 34 of the Representation of People Act requiring candidates contesting for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections to deposit Rs.10,000 and 5,000 respectively.

Dismissing the petition filed by the Voice for Social Justice, the Court said the objective of the provision was to keep the non-serious candidates out of election fray. The provisions did not seem to be arbitrary, the Court said

Visa applications

Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair has directed the Union Government to make arrangements for clearing the visa applications within two weeks from the date of receipt of the applications. He also directed the Government to clear all the pending visa applications within ten days.

The directive was issued while disposing of a writ petition filed by a recruitment agency alleging that there was considerable delay in disposing of the visa applications.

Marad case

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has filed an appeal against the single judge's direction for producing the intelligence reports relating to the Marad incidents before the Marad Judicial Commission. The appeal will come up for hearing tomorrow.

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