[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE Supreme Court today issued notice to the Union Home Ministry, state governments and Union Territories on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions from the apex court to establish human rights courts for each district across the country and to appoint special public prosecutors to compulsorily conduct speedy trials of offences arising out of human rights violations within a specified time frame.
Section 30 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 mandates the establishment human rights courts for each district. It reads as follows:
- Human Rights Courts —For the purpose of providing speedy trial of offences arising out of violation of human rights, the State Government may, with the concurrence of the Chief Justice of the High Court, by notification, specify for each district a Court of Session to be a Human Rights Court to try the said offences: Provided that nothing in this section shall apply if
(a) a Court of Session is already specified as a special court; or
(b) a special court is already constituted, for such offences under any other law for the time being in force.
It was evident, the petitioner, law student Bhavika Phore, submitted that even after more than a quarter of a century, state governments had failed to establish the special human rights courts and also appoint a special public Prosecutor for the purpose of conducting trial in those courts.
The petitioner referred to the recent India Human Rights Report 2018, published by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor which referred to various human rights violations in the country, including police brutality, torture and excess custodial and encounter deaths, the abysmal conditions in prison and detention centres, arbitrary arrests and unlawful detention and the denial of fair public trials.
Referring to recent reports of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the petitioner gave examples of human rights violations occurring in the country, including the treatment of Dalits, tribal group and religious minorities and the number of cases of custodial deaths in the past years.
She also pointed out that from 2001 to 2010, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had recorded that 14,231 persons had died in police and judicial custody in India. This included 1,504 deaths in police custody and 12,727 deaths in judicial custody from 2001-2002 to 2009-2010. A large majority of these deaths were the direct consequence of torture in custody, the petitioner informed the court.
She cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Dilip K Basu v State of West Bengal AIR 2015 SC 2887, which clearly pointed to the laxity of state governments in not forming human rights courts and said if a small state like Sikkim could comply, there was no reason why other states could not.
The public interest petition was heard by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose.
