According to the plea, several States continue to have vacant posts of Chairpersons and Members, while some SHRCs have allegedly remained non-functional for prolonged periods.
The petitioners’ analysis of the 28 State commissions claims that 10 States do not have a permanent Chairperson, 3 SHRCs are defunct, 7 do not have a judicial Member, and 16 do not have a non-judicial Member.
The plea also alleges that 23 States have not made their SHRCs’ annual reports available online.
Under the 1993 law, these reports are meant to record the commissions’ work and be placed before the respective State legislatures. The petition says only 5 States, Goa, Maharashtra, Punjab, Sikkim and Uttarakhand, had annual reports publicly available.