No applications were called for the post, says petitioner
The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to respond to a public interest litigation petition, which challenged the appointment of former judge S. Baskaran as the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on the ground that it lacked transparency.
The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy directed State Government Pleader V. Jayaprakash Narayanan to get instructions from the Public Department Secretary within four weeks with respect to the PIL petition filed by S. Logeshwar, an advocate.
Representing the litigant, senior counsel A. Sirajudeen said Justice Baskaran was fully qualified to hold the post since he had served as a judge of the High Court and that was the reason a writ of quo warranto was not filed questioning the authority under which he was holding the position.