CESTAT President S N Jha appointed Chairman of Bihar Human Rights Commission
President of CESTAT and former Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court, Justice SN Jha has been appointed as the first chairman of the Bihar State Human Rights Commission. As Chairman, he would have a five year tenure and have the status of a Cabinet Minister.
Last month the Patna High Court had asked the Bihar Government to constitute the state human rights commission by June 30, 2008 and report it to the court.
The committee comprising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary, Legislative Council Chairman Arun Kumar, leader of opposition in the assembly Rabri Devi and the leader in the Council Gulam Gaus failed to reach a consensus on the names of the panel chairman and its members despite several rounds of talks. So the state cabinet had recently authorised the chief minister to nominate them.
Now will the President abdicate the CESTAT for the more prestigious HRC? Will Bihar's gain be India 's loss? CESTAT is really in bad times. Judicial indiscipline and indiscretion are on the rise and it badly needs a powerful leader now. At this moment if the CESTAT is headless, it will cause irreparable damage, but then you can't expect the President to sacrifice a great opportunity for the sake of being in CESTAT for a couple of years. If Justice Jha now decides to go to Bihar HRC, it will take at least six months for the Government to find a new President for CESTAT, but if he doesn't go, it is back to square one for the Bihar Government to find a new Chairman.
Our selfish interest would be for Justice Jha to continue in CESTAT, but he has an incomparable offer from the Bihar Government.
We didn't want to embarrass Justice Jha with questions about his decision. So we didn't even ask him, but we wish, he continues in CESTAT.