Justice (retd) P P Naolekar was appointed by the Centre on Tuesday as chairman of the High-Level Committee on Demographic Change. He served on the Supreme Court from 2004 to 2009 and was part of benches that upheld the death penalty for Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and considered a challenge to Section 377 of the IPC.
His most prominent role after retirement was as Lokayukta of Madhya Pradesh, a position given under the BJP government headed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan. RTI activist Ajay Dubey raised concerns that proper selection procedures were bypassed. Petitions were filed in the Supreme Court alleging political influence, though they were later withdrawn. The Lokayukta office later cleared Chouhan and his wife in a corruption case.
The Congress party contested the findings in the High Court. An MLA was arrested after circulating a manipulated image suggesting links between Justice Naolekar and the RSS. In 2014 the state government changed the law to extend the Lokayukta’s term, allowing him to serve until 2016.
Before joining the Supreme Court, Justice Naolekar served as a judge in the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gauhati High Courts. In 2005 he was on the bench that confirmed Afzal Guru’s sentence. In 2006 the court remanded the Section 377 challenge back to the Delhi High Court, which later struck down the provision. In 2007 he authored a judgment clarifying copyright protection for edited law reports.
