NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday slammed the Centre for not appointing Director General in the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and directed it to fill the post in a week’s time.
A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar also asked the central government to appoint the members of the human rights body within four weeks.
"You (Centre) will be in trouble if we start hearing this matter and pass some order. We are granting you four weeks to appoint the members. We hope and expect that the process of appointment of members can be concluded in four weeks," the bench said.
At the outset of the hearing, the bench said, "Why don't you (Centre) appoint somebody? You have to do it. We are not going to grant you so much time."
The court granted the four-week extension, after the Centre requested more time to appoint the members of the human rights body.
The apex court had on December 2 last year expressed displeasure over inordinate delay in filling up vacant positions in the NHRC including that of the Director General of investigation and a member while directing the Centre to enumerate reasons for the delay.
The court had asked the Centre to make these appointments as soon as possible, saying, "How long do you want to drag on? Right from March 2014, there has been vacancy in the commission."
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Radhakanta Tripathy who had said that the "commission cannot function without its chairperson, member and director general of investigation. It has become handicapped due to inaction of the government."
He had contended that due to vacant posts in NHRC for a long time, the pendency of cases has been increasing.