After remaining headless for close to a year, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), the child rights body which functions within the ambit of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, finally has a chairperson.
Former Secretary, department of disability under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Stutee Kacker has been given the charge.
Only last week, the Supreme Court had slapped a penalty of `25,000 on the Central Government for keeping the NCPCR headless for eleven months. The Social Justice Bench comprising Justices MB lokur and UU lalit had passed the order even as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh pleaded that the process for appointing the NCPCR chairman was in the final stages and the relevant file had reached the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The SC had pulled up the Centre in April this year, for not appointing chairperson and other members of the NCPCR despite its direction to fill up the vacancies by March 31. The NCPCR had been headless since October last year after the chairperson Kushal Singh’s term ended.
The posts of other members of the child rights body have been vacant for the last one and half year. According to the NCPCR rule book, the member positions can be filled only once the chairperson is appointed.