Many rights organisations under the banner of Manav Adikar Sangathan Samuha, Odisha, on Tuesday demanded that the State Government appoint the vacant posts of Chairperson and members of the Odisha Human Rights Commission’s (OHRC) immediately.

Addressing a Press meet here on Tuesday, association convenor Chandranath Dani said the OHRC was constituted on January 27, 2000 and started its functioning from July 11, 2003 with a mandate to protect and promote the rights of the vulnerable sections of the society and inquire into violation of human rights by a public authority.

The Chairperson (a former Chief Justice of a High Court) and two members (one former Justice of High Court and another member having knowledge and practical experience on human rights) are supposed to be appointed by the Governor on the basis of recommendation of a selection committee comprising the CM as the Chairperson, the Home Minister, the Speaker and the Leader of Opposition (LOP) of the State Assembly as members. But since its inception, the committee has appointed only two proper Chairpersons and for the rest of the time, the Commission has been managed by members designated as “Acting Chairperson”, Dani added.

Mentioning about the lack of full body members in OHRC, Dani said presently the Commission continues mostly with an Acting Chairperson and is working with one member instead of three members when the number of pending cases is mounting up each day. Presently, more than 15,000 cases are pending at the OHRC, he informed.

Terming the OHRC as completely defunct, Dani said after retirement of the Acting Chairperson Justice BK Misra on August 15, 2018, no member has been appointed so far and all the positions of members are lying vacant.

He also alleged that the selection committee does not show any sense of responsibility and has not followed a transparent procedure allowing opportunities to all eligible to apply for membership as of now. Rather, the CM is always trying to appoint persons having loyalty to him or his party, he alleged. 

The organisation also demanded to appoint the Chairperson and members transparently following the provisions of PHR Act 1993, the Paris Principles and publishing the memorandum of procedure (MOP) adopted for the appointment process of Chairperson and members.

Many members of different rights organisations were present in the meeting.