‘2907 women’s complaints pending’: PIL seeks filling of vacant posts in state women’s commission

Jodhpur: The Rajasthan High Court has taken up a public interest litigation filed by Jodhpur-based organisation Utthaan Vidhik Sahayata Evam Sewa Sansthan, seeking directions to the State Government to immediately fill the posts of Chairperson and three Members of the Rajasthan State Commission for Women — posts that have remained vacant for over a year, leaving nearly 3,000 complaints filed by women across the State without resolution. A Division Bench of Justice Farjand Ali and Justice Chandra Shekhar Sharma noted the first date, with the respondent’s counsel seeking time to respond, and listed the matter after three weeks.

The Rajasthan State Commission for Women was constituted under Section 3 of the Rajasthan State Commission for Women Act, 1999. Under sub-Section (2) of the Act, the Commission is required to consist of a Chairperson and not more than four Members including a Member Secretary, all appointed by the State Government. The Commission’s mandate is broad: it is empowered to redress grievances of women across Rajasthan, safeguard their interests, review laws concerning women, recommend legislative measures, and advise the State Government on all policy matters affecting women.

The post of Chairperson fell vacant on February 10, 2025, upon the conclusion of the tenure of the last Chairperson, Smt. Rehana Rayaz Chisti. The posts of three Members became vacant on March 3, March 9 and March 21, 2025 respectively, as their tenures expired. Since then, the State Government has made no appointments to any of these posts, effectively leaving the Commission without its two principal decision-making tiers for more than a year.

Counsel Sarwar Khan submitted that the prolonged inaction of the State Government in filling these posts had rendered the Commission largely non-functional, to the direct detriment of women across Rajasthan. The petition placed on record that as many as 2,907 complaints and cases filed by women were pending before the Commission’s complaint cell without proper adjudication. A subsequent Right to Information reply dated February 5, 2026 further confirmed that 3,122 complaints were pending — a figure reflecting the scale of the backlog that had accumulated in the absence of any appointed leadership.

The petitioner submitted that the consequences of this vacancy extended well beyond the pendency of complaints. The Commission runs rehabilitation programmes for women in destitute circumstances, providing temporary accommodation, counselling, vocational training and legal aid to women rendered vulnerable by violence, family discord, financial crisis and other adversities. These programmes, the petitioner submitted, had also been adversely affected. Similarly, the Commission’s practice of organising district-level public hearings — which had been held in all 33 districts of Rajasthan as recently as 2022-23 — had ceased entirely since early 2025, leaving women in rural areas without access to a forum at which they could raise their grievances before district administration.

Under Section 12(4) of the Act of 1999, the State Government is obligated to act upon and respond to recommendations sent by the Commission within three months. The petitioner submitted that this function too had been paralysed, as the Commission was unable to send any recommendations to the Government in the direction of gender equity and women empowerment without a functioning Chairperson and Members.

The petitioner also pointed to the broader law-and-order context. The National Human Rights Commission of India had already taken cognizance of complaints alleging an exponential increase in crimes against women in Rajasthan, with reportedly over 80,000 cases registered in one year, of which more than 12,000 pertained to rape. The NHRC had consequently issued notices to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, Rajasthan, seeking action taken reports. The petitioner submitted that the State Government’s failure to fill the vacancies in the Women’s Commission was consistent with a broader pattern of neglect of women’s welfare and safety in the State.

Representations had been submitted to the State Government by the petitioner and others, including a representation dated January 21, 2026, urging immediate appointments. No response was received. Having exhausted all other avenues, the petitioner approached the High Court by way of the present PIL.

On April 2 Mr. Piyush Bhandari, counsel for the State of Rajasthan, appeared before the Division Bench on the basis of an advance copy of the petition. He sought time to file a response to the averments made in the writ petition. The bench accepted the request and listed the matter for hearing after three weeks.

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