Guwahati, Dec. 24: The Assam Human Rights Commission will remain member-less for some more time as a meeting convened to select its judicial member was cancelled hours before it was about to start this evening.

The home department had convened the meeting of the statutory committee, which selects members of the commission, as envisaged under Section 22(1) of the protection of the Human Rights Act, 1993, under the chairmanship of chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal. It was scheduled to start at 5pm at the state secretariat. The Speaker and leader of the Opposition are other members of the committee.

However, a senior official in the chief minister's office is said to have called up the members to inform them about the cancellation.

Though no reason was cited, sources said reservations expressed by leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia could be one of the reasons leading to the cancellation. He had even told a few people that he might boycott the meeting, something which might have forced a change in plan, they said. Saikia told The Telegraph that he had requested the chief minister and Speaker Ranjeet Dass to defer the meeting as Dass would demit office tomorrow to assume his new assignment as the state BJP president. Dass returned to Guwahati today from an official trip abroad.

"I felt the decision arrived at today's meeting would always remain a point of critical discussion. I requested deferment of the meeting till the Assam Assembly elects a new Speaker so that nobody could point a finger at us over the selection of the judicial member. I got the call about the cancellation around 2pm" he said.

The AHRC became memberless after its last member Tarun Phookan, who was the judicial member, demitted office on December 15.

The commission's chairman Justice Aftab Hussain Saikia retired last month while its non-judicial member Jyoti Prasad Chaliha had retired in December 2013.

Sources said the AHRC had started correspondence with Dispur for filling up the post after Chaliha retired in 2013. It also informed that the chairperson would retire this year. Its pleas, however, seems to have gone unheard.

According to the provisions of the Human Rights Act, the state government can constitute the rights commission with a former chief justice as a chairperson - one member, who is or has been a judge of a high court or district judge in the state with minimum of seven years experience as district judge, and one member to be appointed from among persons having knowledge or practical experience in matters relating to human rights.

"The new government, which assumed charge on May 24, needs to ensure that the vacant AHRC posts are filled up as soon as possible or the cases will only pile up and give a bad name to the government," a source said.