PANJIM: The Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) has become headless as the tenure of the three-member Commission ended last month.
GHRC Chairman Justice U V Bakre and Members Judge Desmond D’Costa and Judge Pramod Kamat were appointed in February 2020, for a term of three years, as per the amendment enacted in 2019. Earlier, the tenure of the Commission was for five years.
Justice Bakre tenure ended on February 26, on attaining the age of 70 years, while Judge D’Costa and Judge Kamat’s term of three years too ended on February 7 and 13 respectively.
During their tenure, the Commission settled many complaints of human rights violations and also took cognisance of media reports and admitted suo motu cases even as the Commission could not hear matters during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are still 450-odd complaints mostly human rights violations, pending with the Commission.
Given the past experience when the government delayed the constitution of the Commission for almost a year, the Commission official in December last wrote to the State government about the term of the three members coming to an end and to expedite the process to constitute the new Commission.
It is learnt that the government can reappoint the two members for another term or appoint new members. However, the GHRC Chairman will have to be a retired High Court Judge. “We have already conveyed to the Home Department about the term of the Commission and to expedite the process to appoint the new Commission,” said the GHRC official.
Meanwhile, social activist Adv Aires Rodrigues has urged the government to take immediate steps in expediting the process of constituting the new GHRC.
