Judge T. Vaiphei has been appointed as the chairman of the Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on April 13, Friday.
Almost one and a half years after the post of the chairperson of the Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) became vacant; the commission had been functioning without a head, leading to a high number of cases pending disposal.
The commission is required to have a chairperson who should be a retired chief justice of a High Court apart from a non-judicial member and a judicial member. The commission receives cases related to custodial deaths, any form of violation of human rights and medical negligence among others.
Clarifying on why the appointment has taken so long, Bhaskar Pegu, additional secretary of the home department said that the chairperson of a state human rights commission needs to be a retired chief justice of a High Court and thus the department was finding it difficult to locate a retired chief justice of High Court in other states as well.