HC directs government to appoint SHRC chief

The High Court on Monday directed the State government to appoint the chairperson to State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) at the earliest.

Hearing a petition by City-based organisation, Human Rights Defenders’ Forum (HRDF), the division bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice S N Satyanaranayana directed the State government to consider the representation of the petitioners to fill up the long pending vacancy of chairperson for SHRC.

The petitioners contended that the post is vacant since July 2007 and the cases are piling up at SHRC. Counsel for the petitioners G R Mohan in his submission said as per the Human Rights Act, the State government in consultation with the chief justice should appoint the chairperson, who has to be a former chief justice of the High Court. He said “due to some vested interests, the State government is reluctant to appoint the chairman of the commission and also the members to make it a full fledged commission.”

However, the Court refused to issue any directions in connection with the appointment of members to SHRC.

Stadium case

The High Court on Monday directed the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officers responsible for construction of Rani Chennamma Stadium in Jayanagar 4th Block in Bangalore, to appear before the Court.

Hearing a petition by the Sports Promotion Association, which had filed a PIL petition alleging that the gymnasium at the Stadium was not of international standards as promised by BBMP, the division bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice S N Satyanarayana adjourned the matter with a direction to the official concerned to be present before the Court.

The High Court in February 2013 had appointed the director general of Sports Authority of India as a court commissioner to inspect the stadium.

A bench comprising acting Chief Justice K Sreedhar Rao and Justice Abdul Nazeer had then directed the court commissioner to report deficiencies with regard to infrastructure in the stadium. Accordingly, the commissioner had reported that the stadium was not as per the international standards.