But for immediate intervention by the state government to appoint new members and a chairperson, the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission is likely to be in disrepute, with its office-bearers set to retire soon.
With the assembly elections due in May, the model code of conduct is expected to come into effect from March last week.
Human rights activists and office-bearers of the commission say that unless new appointments are made, the KSHRC will be headless during the major election season.
One of the members of the commission, KB Changappa, a retired district and sessions judge, retired recently.
Another member, Rupak Kumar Dutta, former Director General of Police (DGP) is due to retire on February 24 and the current chairman DH Vaghela, former Chief Justice of the Karnataka, Odisha and Bombay High Courts, will retire on March 12.
The government has not yet initiated any process to make fresh appointments to replace them. The entire process will take a month as there is a need to invite applications, scrutinize and make fresh appointments.
“The autonomous commission has always been neglected by the successive governments. But ahead of a major election season, we demand the government to take immediate action to appoint new members and the chairman before the Model Code of Conduct comes into force,” said T. Narasimhamurthy, city-based lawyer and human rights activist.
“With the commission having no member and chairman, there will be no supervisory authority or commission to assign cases. Even the Inspector General of Police rank officer, who heads the KSHRC police wing, will be given the additional charge,” a senior official said. being given, so the commission will become toothless during the crucial election season, when it will be needed more.
While the bureaucracy of the commission, including the police wing, will continue, their focus will mostly be on completing the pending inquiries, which number more than a thousand.
A senior official said, “The crisis will come to the fore when a case requiring emergency intervention, including illegal detention by the police, reaches the commission, which is likely to happen during the election season.”