The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy set aside the plea filed on the grounds that no advertisement was issued for the appointment and that the Chief Justice was not consulted.

“Frivolous matter tends to take more time. More often than not, the counsel furthering petty causes tend to dilate and seek to rely on judgements that might have no impact on the issue in hand,” the bench held while upholding the appointment of Justice Baskaran, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, as the chairman of the SHRC.

Earlier, Advocate- General Vijay Narayan established that as per the prevailing rules, the government need not consult the Chief Justice before making the appointment if the appointee is not a sitting judge. Baskaran was a retired judge of the High Court, and hence consultation was not required.

As only retired judges or Chief Justices of the High Court were appointed as chairperson of the Commission, there was no need for issuing advertisements inviting applications for the post, the A-G contended. It would suffice if the government obtained the names of the retired judges from the Registrar-General of the High Court, he added.

The bench noted that the selection committee members were the Chief Minister, Assembly Speaker, Minister of Home and Opposition Leader, and dismissed the plea as frivolous.