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No new Ordinance for appointment of SHRC chief

Staff Reporter

High CourtRound-up

Kochi: The State Government informed a Division Bench on Monday that it did not propose to promulgate again an Ordinance regarding qualification needed for a person to be appointed chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission, on the strength of which V.P. Mohan Kumar was continuing in the post.

The submission was made by the Advocate-General when writ petitions challenging the appointment of Mr. Mohan Kumar, former High Court Judge, as chairperson came up.

Counsel for one of the petitioners submitted that a committee comprising the Chief Minister, the Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition and the Home Minister had not unanimously recommended the name of Mr. Kumar for the post. The then Leader of the Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, had objected to the appointment. Therefore, his appointment was illegal.

According to the petitioner, Jomon Puthenpurackal, Mr. Kumar cannot continue to function as chairperson. He said the High Court had earlier restrained Mr. Mohan Kumar and S. Varghese, member of the panel, from functioning. The court was prima facie of the view that they could not function as the commission till all members and the chairperson were appointed in terms of Section 21 of the Human Rights Protection Act.

The Supreme Court had allowed Mr. Mohan Kumar to continue in the post in view of the submission that the Government had promulgated an Ordinance amending the section regarding the qualification of the chairperson. The Ordinance empowered the Government to appoint a retired High Court judge as chairperson. The Human Rights Protection Act provided for appointment of a retired Chief Justice as chairperson. The petitioner said that since the Ordinance lapsed on July 5, Mr. Mohan Kumar could not continue as acting chairperson. The arguments on the petition would continue tomorrow.

`Factually incorrect'

The Government informed the court that averments of some of the students who filed a petition, along with the managements of self-financing colleges, challenging the Kerala Professional Colleges Act, were factually incorrect. Some of them could not secure the minimum marks in the entrance examination in which they had appeared. They had stated in the petition that they had not appeared for the entrance examination at all. So, they were thrown out of the field of choice, as they could not write the test conducted by the management consortium in view of the new law. The additional statement said that the petitioners who wrote the entrance examination had proved themselves incapable of securing admission by scoring higher ranks.

Allegations against Joseph

Justice K.R. Udayabhanu posted to Tuesday for further arguments a writ petition seeking registration of case against Minister for Public Works P.J. Joseph, on the basis of a vigilance inquiry report on corruption charges levelled against him in connection with the alleged misappropriation of funds of the Federation of Indian Floriculturists. When the petition came up, counsel for Mr. Joseph submitted that the court could not look into the report at this stage as the investigation was still on. The court had directed the Director, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, to produce a detailed report regarding the present stage of inquiry.

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