State human rights panel is still in a state of disarray

MUMBAI: The state human rightscommission observed International Human Rights Day on Tuesday with just onemajor achievement to speak of—acquiring premises for itself.Set upon March 6, 2001, as an independent body to probe violations of human rights inMaharashtra, the SHRC was given office premises only in July this year. Itis housed in the barracks next to the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, oppositeCapitol Theatre, at Hazarimal Somani Marg.Another achievement the SHRC canboast of is the staffing of its investigative wing which is headed by inspector-general of police Subhash Awate. He is assisted by superintendent ofpolice J R Sangam, two officers of the rank of inspector and four constables.The legal cell, the heart of the commission, is yet to be staffed. TheSHRC also lacks secretarial staff as the state government is yet to sanction theposts. However, the most important vacancy is that of the chairperson of thecommission.The post is vacant since April 2 this year, ever since Justice(retd) Arvind Sawant resigned after an year in office. Although Mr Sawant,former chief justice of the Kerala high court, did not give any reasons, it islearnt that he quit in a huff after the government refused to pass some billssubmitted by him.Human rights activists are unhappy with the choice ofmembers for the SHRC as well as the functioning of the commission but retiredhigh court judge Anant Mane, the acting chairperson, says it has not done toobadly."We have received 6,000 cases and half of them have been disposedof," he claims. He says his approach is to encourage conciliation or asettlement.According to SHRC secretary M.B. Ray, the commission getsaround 30-40 cases a day but nearly 20 per cent of them are rejected by thescrutiny committee because the body can look only into human rights violation bypublic servants. The definition of public servant has be widened toinclude employees of statefunded organisations.According to Mr Mane, thecommission initiates nearly 10 suo motu cases a month based on newspaperreports, for example custodial deaths, injuries caused by open manholes, denialof essential commodities to ration card holders and allegations regardingmanipulation of land records. Says former head of the Mumbai university''slaw department Vijay Chitnis, one of the five members of the commission, "Wetook up the case of the minor girl raped in the presence of commuters in a localtrain; the case where the civic authorities had denied water connection to aNalla Sopara building; the case where the railway police failed to informrelatives of former national boxing champion Aspy Irani of his arrest; and thecase where some villagers from the scheduled caste were deprived of benefitsunder government schemes meant for them." Mr Mane says it is a good signthat senior government officials take the commission''s summons and proceedingsseriously. His top priority is to find the reasons behind the increasingincidents of deaths of undertrials in the state''s jails. Another area whichinterests him is encroachment of open spaces in the city. The actingchairperson says the commission needs more space for a courtroom where hearingscan be held and a conference hall besides staff for the legal cell. Thegovernment has allotted Rs 60 lakhs for this and the public works departmentwill soon commence work on this. The SHRC is yet to win the trust of thehuman rights activists who stayed away from the function organised by the SHRCon the International Human Rights Day. One such organisation, the People''s Unionfor Civil Liberties (PUCL), played a key role in forcing the government to setup the SHRC and then to adequately staff, house and fund thecommission.The state government should have constituted the SHRC in 1993when the union government passed the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA). ThePUCL pushed the issue in 1997 by demanding the formation of the SHRC when therewas a spate of police encounters in Mumbai. The demand to form a SHRCunder section 21 of the PHRA was included in the PUCL''s public-interestlitigation (PIL) on police encounters. Disposing of the PIL in 1999, the highcourt directed the state government to set up the SHRC.Even when the SHRCwas constituted, the state government dragged it feet on housing and funding it.PUCL had to a file a PIL for this too. Fortunately for the SHRC, the StateFinance Commission was scrapped this year and the centrally-located premiseswere allotted to it.