The state being no stranger to cases of human rights violations, their numbers are piling up before the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC), which, unfortunately, has been able to do little about them over the last couple of months with the government seeming in no hurry to appoint a chairperson to head it.
At least seven candidates , including former Supreme Court judges, Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice R Raveendran, were reportedly in the running for the post, but the government doesn't seem to have been able to make up its mind on who it should be despite holding several meetings to make its choice. Even the meeting convened by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on September 12 with opposition leaders, the home minister, Speaker and chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council failed to arrive at a consensus.
“After the last inconclusive meeting it was rumoured that the candidates themselves were not interested in the post. But we don't really know the reason for the delay in appointing the chairperson,” said an officer of the KSHRC. Besides the chairperson, the commission has two members. While the last chairman, Justice SR Nayak, left after completing five years in office on July 25 , one member, Bannikuppe Parthasarathy , retired on March 2 , and the second, Ramappa Hanamantappa Raddi, retired on July 27. The KSHRC has also been without a secretary, who oversees its administration, since its last secretary, Mr Javid Pasha, retired on June 30.
In the absence of the chairperson, the two members and the secretary, the functioning of the commission has been virtually paralysed. But even so, the government has given no indication of when it intends to fill up the posts although there seems to be no shortage of candidates interested in becoming its members.