PIL challenges appointment in state child rights panel

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Chennai: A public interest litigation has been filed in the Madras high court challenging the appointment of Saraswathi Rangasamy as chairperson of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR). A division bench comprising acting chief justice R. K. Agrawal and Justice M. Sathianarayanan before whom the PIL filed by A. Narayanan, a journalist,  came up for hearing ordered notice, returnable by two weeks, to the selection committee represented by chief secretary, Saraswathi Rangasamy and secretary to government, department of social welfare and nutritious meal scheme.
According to the petitioner, as per section 17 (2) of the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, a chairperson must be a person of eminence, ability, integrity, standing and experience as well as imbibe those qualities in relation to six fields relating to the child rights. But, Saraswathi Rangasamy does not fulfill the criteria as stipulated and her appointment was contrary to law and illegal.
Saraswathi was none other than a political functionary of a political party and in fact she was a secretary in one of the south Chennai divisions of the ruling party. She has no credence or even the basic minimum qualifications. The information under RTI revealed that her appointment was from among 252 candidates and she was possessing BA degree qualification and was a member of a youth welfare committee and during her tenure as member of the committee, she gave advice to parents of children and the children in need of care and protection.
She does not qualify for appointment to such an important high post and hence her appointment was bad in law, he added. He said in order to show that they have complied with the earlier direction of the court for constitution of SCPCR before December 31, 2012, the government hurriedly appointed Saraswathi Rangasamy to circumvent the court’s directions.