The Odisha Human Rights Commission has been reduced to a one-man show ever since Chairperson Justice RK Patra’s term came to an end on November 23, 2011. The rights panel is making do with just member (Administrative) who doubles up as the Acting Chairperson.
As complaints pile up, the Commission is finding it difficult to handle its work burden, thanks to Odisha Government’s apathy towards the cause of human rights protection. Currently, over 6,000 cases are pending for consideration as the Government waits to fill up the position of Member (Judicial) and Chairperson.
The position of Member (Judicial), ironically, has been lying vacant since August 3, 2008 after the term of Himadri Mohapatra ended but the Government has not managed to find a replacement as yet. While the Commission had been operating with a Chairperson and Member (Administrative), several reminders to the Government have proved futile.
On September 29, 2009, Secretary of the Commission Biswajit Mishra wrote to Law Department requesting that the vacancy of Member (Judicial) be filled up expeditiously “as the Commission was feeling handicapped in taking up full-bench matters.” But the Government paid no heed.
Last year, Registrar-Cum-Secretary In-Charge Chitta Ranjan Mohapatra shot off another letter to remind the Government about the vacancy and the growing workload of the Commission with the rise in complaint cases.
In 2010-2011, at least 2,421 complaints were filed before OHRC out of which 1,209 were dismissed in limine. Another 1,212 cases were admitted for consideration. But with at least 4,737 cases pending from the previous year, OHRC had 5,949 cases to hear. During the year, it disposed off 685 cases leaving 5,264 cases for 2011-12.
During 2011-12, at least 3,014 cases were filed of which 1,865 were dismissed in limine and the rest were admitted, leaving the Commission with a huge pile of cases to handle.
Meanwhile, the Government has been verifying practices adopted to fill up the vacancies instead of actually filling them up. In November last year, the Law Department wrote to Principal Resident Commissioner SK Bhargava to check the practices of the National Human Rights Commission in filling up such vacancies but has not gone far.
In the same month, the Special Officer (Administration) of Orissa High Court sent a list of former Chief Justices as well as Judges who were appointed as CJ of other High Courts for selection as Chairperson of OHRC.
Justice Ashok Kumar Ganguly and Justice Bilal Nazki, both former Chief Justice of Orissa HC, as well as Justice Prafulla Kumar Mishra, former CJ of Patna HC featured in the list.
Government’s dilly-dallying approach to fill up the vacancies has come in for criticism. Rights activist Biswapriya Kanungo said it shows the State’s concern for the cause of human rights when more number of cases are pouring in and full-bench needs to be made functional.