The Supreme Court on Monday gave the Narendra Modi-led government a week to appoint the director general of the National Human Rights Commission, PTI reported. A bench led by Chief Justice JS Khehar also asked the Centre to appoint members of the group within four weeks.

The court’s observations came after it heard a plea filed by advocate Radhakanta Tripathy, who alleged that pending cases with the NHRC were piling up because the number of vacant posts at the body had increased. “You [the Centre] will be in trouble if we start hearing this matter and pass some order,” the court said. “Why don’t you appoint somebody? You have to do it. We are not going to grant you so much time.”

This is not the first time the Supreme Court has questioned the Centre on the delay in appointments to various positions at the commission. On December 2, 2016, the court had asked the government to explain the delay, after which a bench had observed that there had been vacancies in the commission since March 2014.