The Centre has found no replacements for the members who have left the statutory body over the last one-and-a-half years. And with the retirement of another member, Virendra Dayal, next week, it will be reduced to just a two-member body -- chairman M N Venkatachaliah and member V S Malimath.

The way the NHRC operates, the exit of every member counts. Though the NHRC employes several officials who investigate complaints of human rights abuse, the final decision on each case has to be pronounced by a bench made up of Commission members. And since there are too many cases to handle, the Commission has increasingly been making do with `single-member benches.'

Though the number of Commission members has declined, their work keeps pilingup. During 1996-97, over 20,000 complaints were registered with the NHRC, compared to just over 10,000 the previous year.

During the year, the Commission found time to take up nearly 17,000 cases, including some from the backlog. Half of them were disposed of at the initial stage itself.

At the beginning of this month, over 16,500 cases were pending at different levels in the Commission. And hearing individual cases -- most of which relate to police excesses and custodial deaths -- are only part of the Commission's job of promoting human rights.

According to the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, the NHRC is supposed to have five full-time members. In addition, chairpersons of national commissions for women, minorities and scheduled castes and tribes, also serve as members, but with limited powers.

The unfilled vacancies go back to January 1997 when two members, Fathima Beevi and Sukhdev Singh Kang, resigned from the Commission after being nominated governors of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

There wassome disquiet within the human rights community over the move. Some felt the Government did wrong in pulling out two members from the statutory body for gubernatorial appointments even before they had served their five-year term. The Act, after all, lays down stringent conditions for the `removal' of a Commission member.

New members have to be appointed by the President on the basis of recommendations by a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson and Leader of the Opposition in both Houses of Parliament.

Government sources say the committee is now scheduled to meet this month to pick names for the vacant positions. But there is no certainity that the Commission will be back to full strength soon: a similar meeting planned about two months ago was cancelled with the Parliament in session keeping the participants busy.

The Commission has tried to change with the times. When the Commission was set up five years ago, each complaint had tobe examined by a bench consisting of at least two members. The Commission changed its rules to let single-member benches take up complaints.

The Commission is also deliberating on whether certain categories of complaints can be processed under its directions ``at a level below it,'' so it can focus on the more serious cases.

About six months ago, it also set up a ``fast track'' for handling the more urgent complaints. Such cases travel from desk to desk in the Commission in red files: the distinctive colour is meant to ensure that life-and-death matters do not get caught in the Commission's own red tape.