HIGH COURT PULLS UP DELHI GOVT OVER VACANT POSTS IN CHILD RIGHTS COMMISSION

The Delhi high court on Tuesday pulled up the Delhi government for prolonged vacancies in the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR).

A bench led by acting chief justice Manmohan expressed dismay over the Delhi women and child development minister’s inaction in addressing the issue, noting that a proposal to invite applications for filling the vacant posts was pending since August last year.

“Where there is a will, there is a way. Will has to be there. From August to March, nothing has happened,” remarked the bench, also comprising justice Manmeet PS Arora.

The court observed that the reasons for the lack of progress between August 2023 and March 2024 were not apparent from the file. This criticism from the high court comes a day after it criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for its failure to provide textbooks and uniforms to students in municipal schools. The court on Monday characterised the government’s explanation as “shedding crocodile tears” and highlighted that the real issue at hand was power, control, turf dominance, and credit.

In the current case, the court was addressing a plea filed by the National Child Development Council, a child welfare organisation, seeking directions to the Delhi government to expeditiously fill vacant posts of chairperson and members in DCPCR within a fixed time period.

The plea filed through advocate Robin Raju said that the child right’s body was functioning without a chairperson since July 203 and keeping the post vacant for so long was violative of DCPCR Rules. The plea said that though the council had also submitted a representation requesting the Delhi government to fill the vacant post of chairperson, no response was received.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Raju said that though the chairperson played a pivotal role in monitoring child rights and advising the government on policy formulation, the post of the chairperson was vacant since July.

The secretary (services department), represented by advocate Avnish Ahlawat, submitted that though the department had moved the file for inviting applications to fill up vacant posts in August, the women and child development minister had responded in March 2024 saying that advertisements could not be issued since the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was in force. She said that lieutenant governor VK Saxena, in the meantime, had made an interim arrangement by appointing the secretary of the social welfare department as DCPCR’s chairperson.

DCPCR, represented through advocate Prateek Chadha, urged the court to list the matter after June arguing that it was not possible to issue advertisements while MCC was in force.

The court then issued notices to the Centre, Delhi government and DCPCR, posting the next hearing to July 16.

The Delhi government did not respond to requests for comment.

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2024-04-30T18:05:39Z dg43tfdfdgfd