SC FINES TELANGANA FOR NOT FILING REPLIES OVER SETTING UP OF HUMAN RIGHTS COURTS

INTRODUCTION:

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court fined seven states including Telangana, for failing to file the responses on setting up the Human Rights Courts despite its direction in the year of January 2018.

According to the reports, the Telangana government was fined for Rs 50,000/- along with the Uttar Pradesh, odisha, Meghalaya and Mizoram after they failed to file any response.

The states which had been penalised are Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Meghalaya and Mizoram. While Telangana, UP, Odisha, Meghalaya and Mizoram were being fined with Rs 50,000. Rajasthan and Uttarakhand were fined for Rs 1 lakh for either filing a response nor for having a prosecutor, while the case was heard.

FAILURE OF SETTING UP OF HUMAN RIGHTS COURTS:

In the year of January 2018, a petition was filed by a law graduate named Bhavika Phore over the setting up of Human Rights Courts in each district of the state to conduct a speedy trial. The Supreme Court had asked all the states to set up courts and appoint Special Public Prosecutor (SPPs) for conducting a speedy trial of offences arising out of human rights violations within a period of time of three months.

However, the government of Telangana had failed to give any response on setting up the Human Rights Court.  The last permanent State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Chairperson was Justice Nisar Ahmad Kakru, who completed his term in the year of 2016. The position made to be filled yet.

Despite several court interventions and outrage by activists, the government had not appointed a chairperson or other staff to the Human Rights Commission for the past three years.

According to the survey, 8000 cases were pending with the State Human Rights Commission with the 3823 fresh complaints between November 1, 2018 and July 6, 2019.

CONCLUSION:

The Telangana also doesn’t have a Lokayukta, an autonomous anti corruption body. The reports revealed that there were complaints since December 15, 2017 and nearly 2767 complaints were received, while the total number of complaints pending with the institution was a staggering to 5283.

-Vijayalakshmi Raju

Student Reporter, INBA.