The Delhi High Court on Thursday extended the deadline given to the Centre to nominate persons to all the vacant positions in the National Commission for Minorities by two months.
Justice Rekha Palli said the process, which was earlier directed to be concluded by July 31, be completed by September 30. The High Court’s decision came after the Centre made a plea to extend the deadline by a period of three months.
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The High Court had earlier directed that the nomination of all the vacant positions be filled on or before July 31 in order to ensure that the commission functions efficiently and the purpose of the commission as envisaged under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 is also fully given effect to.
The Centre had sought the extension on the account of the COVID-19 situation in the country during the months of April and May.
Abhay Ratan Bauddh, in his petition, has said that only the post of vice-chairman of the commission was functional since October 2020, while the remaining positions, including that of the chairperson and members from Buddhist, Christian, Parsi, Sikh and Jain communities remained vacant.
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The petition said that the posts started becoming vacant around April 2020 and since October 2020, only one post was functional.
It claimed that despite bringing the issue to the attention of the Ministry, the government has not done anything to fill up the posts.