Friday, April 29 2005 12:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Supreme Court today (Apr 29, 2005) upheld the appointment of former CBI Director P C Sharma as a member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Dismissing the petition filed by People's Union of Civil Libery (PUCL), challenging Sharma's appointment in the right's panel by the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government, a three-judge bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde, B P Singh and S P Sinha said that his appointment was within the parameters of the NHRC Act.

The matter was referred to the larger bench after a division bench had given a spilt verdict on his appointment.

Justice Y K Sabharwal, who headed the division Bench, said that it was a complete no for appointment of a former CBI or a police official to be appointed as a Member of the apex human rights body.

Other Judge of the Bench, Justice D M Dharmadhikari said that all legal procedures and requirements were met while appointing Sharma as a Member of NHRC and hence it was a valid appointment.

Once the legal requirements were fulfilled, the Court should not go into the wisdom behind the Government's decision to appoint the former CBI Director as the Member.

The present Government had also supported the decision of the previous Government in appointing Sharma as the Member of the NHRC, which was objected to by the Chairman of the body.

The Chairman had even written a letter to then Prime Minister opposing the move to appoint Sharma as Member.