Human rights panel may sit in southern districts too

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 23

The Haryana Human Rights Commission (HHRC) contemplates to hold its sitting in Gurugram besides Chandigarh so that complainants from southern districts of Haryana like Gurugram, Nuh, Faridabad, Palwal, Rewari, Mahendergarh, Jhajjar and Charkhi Dadri do not have to travel long distances.

Former Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court Satish Kumar Mittal who assumed office of HHRC Chairman on Monday along with newly appointed Member (Judicial) Justice KC Puri (retired), said that the commission would soon request the government to provide suitable building for this purpose in Gurugram.

Talking about his priorities during an exclusive interview with The Tribune, Mittal said protection and conservation of rights accruing among individuals through the Constitution or Statutes or through the international treaties was the basic function of any human rights commission.

“Our endeavours will be to stop any violation of human rights of individuals. Besides acting on complaints, the commission will also work towards prevention of violation by creating awareness among people through seminars and workshops,” he said.

Mittal said that the violations could be of two kinds – violation of individual human rights and violation of collective human rights.

He said while people come forward with complaints to the commission on violation of their individual rights, the HHRC can take suo moto cognisance of collective violations like supply of contaminated drinking water or scarcity of water and electricity through media reports. “We have an investigation wing to get authentic details in all such cases,” he added.

Commenting on the large number of pending cases in the commission, since he had joined nearly 21 months after his predecessor Justice Vijender Jain retired on August 1, 2016, Mittal said the pendency would be streamlined within six months.

“We have about 2,400 cases out of which 1,400 are old and nearly 1,000 filed after the commission became non-functional. We have taken up 19 cases on our first day, and I am sure the things will be streamlined within six months,” he said.