Kerala   

Plea against functioning of SHRC Acting Chairperson

Staff Reporter

Kochi: A writ petition was filed before the Kerala High Court seeking to restrain V.P Mohan Kumar from functioning as Acting Chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission.

The petition was filed by Jomon Puthenpurackal. According to him, the High Court had earlier restrained Mr. Mohan Kumar and S. Varghese from functioning as Chairperson and member respectively till a Chairperson and other members were appointed.

The court was prima facie of the view that the two members could not function as a Commission till all members, including its Chairperson, were appointed in terms of Section 21 of the Human Rights Protection Act.

When the State Government approached the Supreme Court, the High Court order was stayed and Mr. Mohan Kumar was allowed to continue as Acting Chairperson.

The Supreme Court had disposed of the appeal in view of the submission that the Government had promulgated an Ordinance regarding the qualification of the Chairperson.

The Ordinance empowered the Government to appoint retired High Court judges as Chairperson in case the retired Chief Justice was not available for appointment as Chairperson.

The Human Rights Protection Act provided for the appointment of a retired Chief Justice as Chairperson of the Commission.

The petitioner pointed out that since the Ordinance would lapse on July 5, Mr. Mohan Kumar could not continue as Acting Chairperson.

Pay scale

A Division Bench has stayed a single judge's verdict declaring that the training period of police constables should be reckoned as period of service while fixing the pay revision scale.

The interim order came on an appeal filed by the State Government against the single judge's order.

The Government submitted that if the single judge order was implemented, the financial burden of the State would come to around Rs.550 crores.

LIS's case dismissed

A Bench comprising Chief Justice V.K. Bali and Justice P.R. Raman has dismissed the petition filed by LIS challenging the case registered against it on charges of cheating the public and violation of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act 1978.

The Bench also dismissed its petition challenging the police directive for closing down the business and also seeking a directive to the police not to harass them. The court, while directing the police to complete the investigation within two months, ordered the magistrate concerned to consider the contentions of the LIS directors.

According to the advertisements issued by LIS, the money paid by customers under LIS Deepasthambam scheme was used to buy lottery tickets. It would repay double the amount to the customer within a fixed time frame. A minimum of Rs.1,250 was collected from each customer.

Meanwhile, the LIS management said that it would approach the Supreme Court seeking to allow them to enrol new members in the scheme.

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