Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today introduced two bills to increase the terms of chairperson and members of the the State Human Rights Commission and Accountability Commission to five years and the upper age limit for their eligibility to 75 years.
The decision comes in the wake of shortage of retired judges eligible for the posts in the two commissions.
Minister for Rural Development Abdul Haq Khan on behalf of the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister introduced a bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Protection of Human Rights Act, 1997 (LA Bill No 4 of 2015) in the Assembly.
The objective of the bill is to increase the term of the chairperson and members of the State Human Rights Commission from three years to five years and the upper age limit for eligibility to 75 years, the minister said.
"All the positions of the chairperson and members are vacant. The eligibility for the appointment of chairperson is that he should have been a judge of a high court and should not be more than 70 years of age", the Bill said.
At present a very few number of retired judges fulfilling such criteria are available, it said.
Accordingly a draft bill has been prepared to provide for treating the leader of the largest group or party in opposition to the government as a member of committee in case there is no recognised leader of opposition in the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council, as the case may be, it said.
Khan also introduced another bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Accountability Commission Act 2002 (LA Bill No 5 of 2015).
The proposed amendment bill seeks to amend Section 6 of the J&K Accountability Commission Act 2002 for increasing the term of office of chairperson and members from three years to five years and for increasing the upper age limit for eligibility from 70 to 75 years.
The bill also provides for constitution of three-member cabinet sub-committee to act as a search committee for shortlisting the names of the probables for selection by a committee provided under the Act, it said.
Due to limited availability of retired judges, the Commission has at many times in the past remain headless for a long spell of time, it said.
In order to broaden the zones of consideration for appointment of chairpersons and members, the term of office and the age limit of chairperson and the members is required to be increased, it said.
The Minister for Education Naeem Akhter also introduced a bill in the house to increase the tenure of vice-chancellors for the state universities from three years to five years.
All the bills were introduced through voice votes.
