INTRODUCTION Sudarshan Agarwal as a Member came to an end on 18 June 2001, upon his attaining the age of seventy years. As of the time of writing this report, twelve months later, no appointment had been made under the provisions of section 4 of the Statute of the Commission to fill the vacancy resulting from his retirement. In accordance with section 3(3) of that Statute, Shri Justice Mohammed Shaihim, Chairperson of the National Commission of Minorities, continued to serve as an ex-officio Member of the Commission. The terms of office of the two other ex-officio Members of the Commission, however, came to an end during the period under review. Shri Dilip Singh Bhuria, Chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes ^d Scheduled Tribes completed his term of office on 16 December 2001 and Smt. Vibha Parthasarathi, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women completed her term of office on 17 January 2002. They were succeededby Dr Bizay Sonkar Shastri and Dr Poomima Advani, who were appointed to serve, respectively, as Chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Chairperson of the National Commission for Women. 1.5 Shri EC. Sen assumed the responsibilities of Secretarj^-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Commission on 6 August 2001, succeeding Shri N. Gopalaswami. Shri Y.N. Srivastava continued to serve as Director General (Investigation) of the Commission during the period imder review, while Shri S.C. Verma joined as Registrar (Law) on 12 July 2001. ANNUAL REPORT 2001 -2002