NEW DELHI: Most Indian Human Rights groups and pro rights individuals have dismissed’ the government’s decision to setup a commission on human rights as lacking in substance and bogus.
Former Supreme Court judge Y.R.Krishna Aiyer in a statement al Patiala described the commission as “a big hoax which has made a mockery of law.” The former judge observed that the commission would be of no help lo the victims of the state because its terms and conditions stood in the way of any meaningful initiative. There was no scope for nongovernment organizations in the conduct of the commission without which participation of people was not possible, the commission in its present form was in total violation of the U.N, Charter of Human Rights, Justice Aiyer added.
A Delhi Supreme Court advocate Sorabjee in a note attacked the commission as seriously flawed, He said that the effectiveness of the commission in protecting Human Rights would be minimal, Sorabjee said that the commission had not been provided independent investigation machinery and would have to depend on the police to enquire into complaints against their superiors which was impossible, Secondly, the period of limitation was one year and the commission had no power to condone the delay in filing complaints by the victims, Thirdly, the function of the commission was recommendatory. It had no power to punish any wrongdoer. It would have to merely send reports to the executive for action and grant of interim relief. If the government did not accept these recommendations, that would be the end of the matter, In short, the advocate said that the job of the commission would be to assist the litigants before courts. That job was already being done by public spirited non-government organizations for years: The final act of its emasculation is the provisions of exclusion of military and security forces from the purview of the commission.
Mohan Ram, a senior journalist of the Pioneer, wrote that government authorities who briefed newsmen about the commission had no convincing answer to the question as to why the investigative role of the commission did not extend to the armed forces, Mohan Ram further said: “Where specific enquiries had established violation of human rights involving riot victims of 1984 in New Delhi in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the guilty have not been brought to book. Just 12 of the 2341 accused have been convicted. None of them is a policeman or any political functionary of consequence, and all the 12 are free on parole.” The ordinance provides for speedy trial of the accused. But one has only to look at the farce of designated courts under TADA; Mohan Ram further says that the commission inspires little confidence because the armed forces engaged in law and order duties arc outside the purview of the commission.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 15, 1993
