The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Union government on a plea for appointment of full-term chairman and vice-chairman of the National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian sought a reply from the Centre, the Uttar Pradesh government and others, after hearing advocate Rajesh Inamdar, on a PIL by NGO 'People's Charioteer Organisation'.
The petitioner said the role of constitutional bodies was pivotal for taking into account the issues related to atrocities upon the oppressed communities. However, the headless-Commissions had been reduced to paper-tigers and were fast losing their relevance, becoming non-functional, it claimed.
The plea was filed in October, 2020 in the wake of alleged gang rape and subsequent death of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras, causing massive outrage across the country.
The PIL said there was neither the chairperson or chairman and the vice-chairperson, nor the members in both the NCSC and the NCST. Similarly, the top posts of such a panel in Uttar Pradesh are lying vacant.
"This shows the total lack of empathy and seriousness, as regards the rights of the SCs and STs and the redressal of the encroachment and transgressions of their rights. It has proved catastrophic to the whole community. They are now bearing the brunt of being targeted systematically by the anti-social elements," it said.
The petition, drafted by advocates Rajesh Inamdar, Shashwat Anand and Amit Pai and others, stated that the role of the Commissions as constitutional bodies was important, as they exercise power of a civil court.
Like the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Commission can approach the appropriate Court for injunction or mandamus to protect the interests of the SCs and STs, it said.
"Owing to glaring vacancies, the Commissions were being run by the bureaucracy, which made them toothless, ineffective and rendered the victims of the atrocities remediless," it said.
"This makes these Commissions redundant and ephemeral," it further added.
The petition said it was the utmost necessary and imperative, that this court directed the central and UP governments, to make appointments of the respective posts in the concerned Commissions. It also sought a direction for publishing the Annual Reports, within a reasonable time.
The annual report of the NCSC has not been published since October 17, 2016, which was laid in the Parliament on August 9, 2018. The Annual report of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has not been published for the years 2018-19 and 2019-20, as of yet.
It pointed out that the data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) was alarming to its core.
The bureau records that there were nearly 45,935 crimes against SCs in 2019, showing an increase of 7.3% over 2018, when 42,793 such cases were recorded. At 11,829 cases, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against SCs in 2019.
"It is noteworthy here that UP’s Commission for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is missing a Chairman since the last 10 months and no steps have been taken to appoint one by the state government," it said.