NHRC, SHRC remain toothless tigers as government pays no heed

Except for attracting some media attention to the issues of human rights violation in the state, these reports and investigation by these human rights organisations create little impact and the officials who are accused of human rights violation continue to serve the government without any penal action initiated against them. 

“Our reports are of no value and seldom any action is being initiated based on our reports. Unless the government amends the human rights protection laws, both NHRC and SHRC will continue to be useless organisations,” a senior SHRC official told DTNext. 

As per the present legislations, the reports or recommendations have no binding on the government and most of these reports are dismissed. “We investigate cases that are referred to us by the SHRC. In most of the cases, we find officials guilty of human rights violations and recommend action against such erring officials. But none of our recommendations are acted upon,” a senior official of the SHRC investigation wing said. 

These judicial bodies have the power to try an erring official in their court rooms. However, once the trial is finished and charges confirmed, these bodies forward their judgment to the government departments. 

“Then these reports are put in the dust bin. I have not come across any case where the government has taken serious note on the recommendation of either SHRC or NHRC,” the official added. He added that things would change only if these judicial bodies had more power and their reports have the legal binding on the government. 

While it is mandatory to have separate courts for trying cases of human rights violations in all districts according to the law of the land, no such move has been initiated so far.

Sources in the Commission told DTNext that most of the time the State government officials do not even give prompt replies to these judicial bodies when reports are sought from them. “We need to have amendments to improve the functioning of SHRC and NHRC. Human rights violations are rampant in the state and nobody really cares as culprits know they can go scot free, even if we find them guilty in the present scenario,” a senior SHRC official said. 

Meanwhile, the NHRC has now filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in the case pertaining to extra-judicial killings in Manipur, accusing both Centre and State governments for ‘not taking them seriously’. It also had said that the Centre had been ignoring its request for recruitment of more people to follow up on cases. 

“The cases of child abduction and human trafficking are very prevalent in Tamil Nadu. However, no action have been taken with regard to the reports we file and they are dismissed as just recommendatory,” an SHRC official said.