PANJIM: Two prominent constitutional rights bodies – State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA) and Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) – continue to remain headless leaving several applicants in a dilemma to approach the institutions with their grievances. 

SPCA and GHRC have been without Chairmen for around 11 months and two years respectively. However, the institutions claim they are functioning and the absence of the chairmen has not hampered and complaints are being received though SPCA has kept on hold orders in a few cases.

“The Home Department has been informed about the vacant posts in the SPCA and GHRC. We have been told that since Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is unwell, the appointments are delayed. The two rights bodies are expected to once again write to the government urging urgent filling up of the posts,” said a senior bureaucrat. 

At SPCA, which was formed in April 2007, final reports (orders) in seven matters including that of a complaint filed by Kavesh Gosavi – acquitted in shrines desecration cases – are pending in absence of Chairman. 

Gosavi, who was charge sheeted in a series of shrines desecration cases, was acquitted by the Margao court in 2013. He along with Abdul Albaksh Gaffer Shirogod and Khalil Mohammad then moved the SPCA against Police Inspector Sandesh Chodankar and other policemen challenging the narco analysis test conducted on them 

without their consent. 

Sources said that Gosavi during the hearing also alleged that the narco test affected his health. While the hearing continued even after the former chairman’s retirement, SPCA members S B S Kerkar and Dr B A Gomes have held back final report to an undecided date. 

The Chairman’s post fell vacant after Justice (retd) R M S Khandeparkar completed his five years tenure on March 31, 2018. Although the SPCA members continue to hear complaints/cases, the panel does not have the powers to deliver a verdict sans its Chairman. 

“The functioning has not come to a standstill except that the members cannot pass orders. As such, final reports in seven cases are pending and these will come up for orders once the government appoints a new Chairman,” said a member.   

As many as 519 cases have been filed with the SPCA in over a decade, of which 429 cases have either been disposed or dismissed, while 90 other cases are pending hearing. In 2019 till date there have been nine cases filed with the authority, hearings of which are underway. A large number of these cases comprise non-registration of First Information Report, while one case is of custodial assault.

GHRC, on the other hand, has just one member A D Salkar holding the fort. Details with Herald reveal that after Chairman Justice (retd) Prafulla Misra’s tenure ended on March 3, 2016, no full-time Chairman has been appointed by the government. After much correspondence with the government, member A D Salkar was appointed as acting chairman but for a brief period as the order was thereafter revoked. In another setback, the commission’s other member J A Keny died in September 2018 leaving just one member to handle the cases. 

The Commission is conducting hearings into some important matters like fish formalin against the State government and Food & Drugs Administration. During this period, orders have also been passed, sources said.