The Human Rights Commission in India

This article is written by Utkarsh Trivedi, a student at The National Law University Odisha, Cuttack, batch of 2017-22. This article discusses about the safeguards of human rights and powers of the National Human Rights Commission conferred by The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

Introduction

The term Human Rights is a very dynamic and broad term; It includes natural rights, fundamental rights etc. In short, all the rights that an individual needs to live a sustainable and respectable life, are known as Human Rights. These rights are universal in nature and are inherent to an individual.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of Human Rights. The 30 articles of the Declaration were adopted in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly, and over time these have been integrated into national laws and international treaties. The core values of the UDHR – human dignity, fairness, equality, non-discrimination – apply to everyone, everywhere.

India, like every country, has its own National Human Rights Commission which is the guardian of Human Rights in India.

The NHRC was given statutory basis by The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (TPHRA).

The members of the NHRC are;

1. Chairperson, who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
2. Member, who is/was a Judge of the Supreme Court
3. Member, who is/was a Chief Justice of a High Court
4. Two members to be appointed from among persons having knowledge of, or practical experience in, matters relating to Human Rights
5. Four members, the Chairpersons of the 4 national commissions (SC, ST, Women, and Minorities) serve as ex-officio members.

Work of the NHRC is illustrated below;

1. The NHRC proactively or reactively inquires into violations by the Government of India or negligence in the prevention of such violation by a public servant.

The NHRC takes into cognizance the cases where a public servant, having the authority to prevent a violation but doesn’t stop it from occurring.

The most recent case is where the NHRC sent a notice to the Govt. of Tamil Nadu and Chairperson CBSE where there was alleged humiliation by CBSE officials in the name of security checks at NEET centers.

1. The NHRC also takes Suo Moto cognizance of cases

The commission takes into consideration reports which come in print and digital media about a violation and then acts on it.

The most recent case it took suo moto cognizance was in a communal violence case in Asansol, West Bengal where the Commission had come across various media reports regarding ongoing violence in Asansol-Raniganj area of West Bengal which started on 25.03.2018, on the day of Ram Navami in which several people had died and a Police Officer had sustained grievous injuries. As reported by the “Indian Express” in its 31.03.2018, edition, the situation was still out of control.

1. The NHRC encourages the work of NGOs that are working in the field of Human Rights.

Under Section 12(1) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, the Commission is to encourage the efforts of the NGOs which work under the ambit of uplifting the human right values in the country.

The NHRC encourages NGOs to bring these violations to their notice so that they can take the matter into their own hands and bring justice to the victims.

The NGOs, as they work at the grassroots have much more exposure and thus are most suitable for this work, is what the commission believes, and is right at it.

1. The NHRC undertakes and promotes research in the field of Human Rights.

The Statute of the Commission requires it to undertake and promote research in the field of Human Rights (Section 12(g) of the TPHRA,1993). Accordingly, it conducts research studies in collaboration with universities, technical institutions and non-governmental organizations. A recent research was undertaken for 8 months by the NHRC for the Council of Social Development on Understanding the social dynamics and challenges of surrogates.

1. The NHRC with media works together to take the Human Rights programmes to the masses.

The media has become very sensitive on the issues of Human Rights and the interaction between the Commission officials and media have increased. The Commission with its Information and Public Relations Division maintains constant contact with electronic and print media so that no Human Rights violation goes unnoticed. Hence, this way the commission also takes suo-moto cognizance of cases.

The NHRC and Human Rights Defenders

• Human Rights are inherent and integral to a human and there are safeguards to it as well. As the army protects us on the borders, the Human Rights Defenders (HRD) protects us from the violations of these rights.

• In the month of April 2018, the NHRC took cognizance of 14 cases, where 4 were Suo-Moto and 10 were registered by HRD’s, thus forming the most number of complaints being from the HRDs.
• They make use of the Right to Information Act,(2004) to extract information out for the betterment of the public and henceforth also extract violations in the form of Human Rights.
• Human Rights Defenders in India face a diverse range of attacks and harassment from state and non-state actors alike, including killing, physical assault, arbitrary detention, threats and judicial harassment.

Case study of a Human Rights Defender

• Henri Tiphagne is a Human Rights Defender from Tamil Nadu and has filed more than 5 cases in the NHRC till date about various Human Rights violations in the country.
• Most of his complaints are on deaths by terrorists/extremists, abuse of power and illegal arrest.
• He has been instrumental in providing the commission information about such violations and hence is a probable target by the perpetrators of the violations that he has reported.
• In a study published by Amnesty International, it has been found that more than 3500 HRD’s have been killed since 1998, whereas 281 were killed in 2016, a significant increase from 156 in 2015.

What the government needs to do:

• The government needs to safeguard the interests of the HRD’s
• Provide them with protection if necessary
• Give some monetary benefit so that their work is rewarded and more people come together to work for the nation
• The government should reward these Defenders so that they are known to the public in the diaspora

Important guidelines by the NHRC

• Medical Examination of Prisoners on admission to the Jail
• Visits to Police lockups
• Improving Public-Police relationships
• Revised format of Post-Mortem examination in custodial/judicial deaths
• Ending manual scavenging
• Guidelines for the media in addressing the issue of child sexual abuse
• Procedure on the premature/early release of prisoners

These guidelines are among a lot many which the commission uses to keep the rights of the citizens intact and to be harmonious with the Constitution of India as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

State Human Rights Commission

According to the The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, amendment to point 10, State Human Rights Commissions were formed to perform the functions of the commission as stated under chapter V of TPHRA,1993 (with amendment act 2006). At present, 26 states have constituted State Human Rights Commission.

The SHRC works under the NHRC and takes cognizance of cases under their jurisdiction and if applicable transfers the cases to the NHRC, if an appeal is made, the NHRC works as the Supreme Court and is the highest appellate authority in these matters.

The State Human Rights Commission constitutes of the following members;

1. A Chairperson, who has been The Chief Justice of a High Court
2. A member, who is or has been a judge of the High Court or of a district court with minimum experience of 7 years as a district court judge
3. A member, who has practical knowledge and experience in matters relating to the Human Rights

An important point to note is that the NHRC, under Section 36 of the The Protection of Human Rights Act,1993 cannot take jurisdiction of any case pending under a State Human Rights Commission.

Controversies

The commission has not been free from controversies though, with the most prominent one being a case which involved high-ranking officials being implicated in the murder of a journalist, opened the organisation up to questioning over the usefulness of Human Rights commissions set up by the government at the national and state levels. This was the murder of Shivani Bhatnagar, a journalist, this case was rejected by the NHRC.

Another case where the credibility of the commission was under question was where the chairman of the NHRC, ex-Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan came under a cloud for allegedly owning assets disproportionate to his income. His son-in-law P. V. Srinijan, an Indian National Congress politician, had to resign for suddenly coming into possession of land worth Rs. 25 lakhs.

Conclusion

Every commission set up by the government is to serve the people and maintain public law and order, and just so, the NHRC has been doing work for the country. It has to date disposed off a lot of complaints pertaining to the violations of Human Rights reported by the media, Defenders or has taken suo-moto cognizance of it. The NHRC, under the guidance of senior members, like the ex-Chief Justice of India(ex-CJI) being the Chairperson has shown an upward trend in disposing of the cases and has been instrumental in keeping the violations in check and punishing the perpetrators.

References

1. http://www.nhrc.nic.in/documents/hrd.pdf
2. http://www.nhrc.nic.in/documents/suomotu.pdf
3. https://amnesty.org.in/news-update/human-rights-Defenders-serious-risk-india-across-globe/
4. http://nhrc.nic.in/documents/hrd.pdf
5. http://www.nhrc.nic.in/documents/Medical%20Examination%20of%20Prisoners%20on%20Admission%20to%20Jail.pdf