The Supreme Court today came down heavily on the Rajasthan government for not appointing the Chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission for five years, saying this "very sad state of affairs" was "totally unacceptable".
The social justice bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit asked the state government to take steps and fill other vacancies as well in the human rights panel.
The bench also strongly objected to the fact that there were no human rights courts in the state.
"We are distressed that the State Human Rights Commission has been without the services of the Chairman since 2010 (since 16.7.2010) - that is almost five years. ... This is a very sad state of affairs," it said.
"It is totally unacceptable and subverts the provisions of the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993," it said.
"What do you mean by the right person? All Chief Justices of the High Court are right persons," it said when the counsel for the state submitted that it has not found a "right person" for the top post of the State Human Rights Commission.
The court also noted the "tremendous staff shortage" at the panel and said the Commission members cannot work as they do not get support staff.
"They (commission members) don't get staff, they can't work," the court said, giving Rajasthan three weeks to tell the court the time-frame in which all the deficiencies as pointed out would be remedied.
