India, Jan. 31 -- The Delhi High Court expressed concern on Friday over vacancies leaving the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) "non-functional" and asked the Centre to state the time by which all positions in the body would be filled.

Dealing with a public interest litigation (PIL) matter filed by petitioner Mujahid Nafees on the issue of vacancies in the NCM, a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia observed that the commission is a statutory body that does not have a chairperson or a member since April last year.

The HC asked the Centre to file an affidavit detailing the steps taken by it to fill all the vacancies and questioned its counsel if seeking six more months to complete the process is reasonable. ...