Aneesha Mathur , Aneesha Mathur : New Delhi, Sun Nov 10 2013, 11:39 hrs

With less than two weeks left in his tenure, the appointment of Yogesh Dube as a member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) was on Thursday quashed by the Delhi High Court.

Yogesh Dube, and Vinod Tikoo were appointed to the NCPCR in 2010 amidst controversy regarding the selection panel as well as stiff opposition from some NGOs.

The Association for Development, through its president Raaj Mangal Prasad, and HAQ Centre for Child Rights, whose co-director was also a candidate for appointment to the Commission, had filed a writ petition in 2011 against the appointment of Dube and Tikoo as expert members, claiming that the appointment was made for "collateral reasons" and ignored "several meritorious candidates."

Referring to an earlier judgment of the High Court issued in February 2010 on a similar plea, the petition filed by the NGOs had claimed that the appointments were in violation of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act since the proper procedure had not been followed for selection of members.

In 2010, the same organisations had filed a plea before the High Court alleging that the selection committee members were being "pressurised" into choosing members with certain political affiliations. The court had at the time directed the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry to display the names and credentials of candidates online to ensure transparency.

According to the petition, the procedure for calling for applications through advertisements in newspapers had not been followed, raising allegations of arbitrariness and nepotism from the NGOs.

"The response to an RTI application… clearly stated that no advertisement was placed by the ministry for filling the posts of members of the NCPCR," said the plea, adding that while the names of the possible candidates had been displayed on the WCD Ministry website, there had been no information on who should be approached in case any objections have to be raised.

http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/hc-quashes-appointment-of-child-rights-panel-member/1193023/