By PTI
NEW DELHI: NHRC chairperson justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra on Wednesday cautioned against the growing instances of “instant justice through encounters” and said that it indicates a “systematic failure”.
He said it is time to think about what needs to be done to correct such failures due to which even the decree of the courts is not implemented sometimes.
Mishra was speaking during a meeting of representatives of the National Human Rights Commission and State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs) at Vigyan Bhawan here.
During the meeting, a decision was taken to set up a joint committee to chalk out a time-bound collaborative action plan to ameliorate the cause of human rights in the country, officials said.
The NHRC chief noted that the non-implementation of welfare schemes in the right earnest “leads to human rights violations”.
During the meeting, Mishra cautioned against the growing instances of “instant justice through encounters”, which, he said, indicate a “systematic failure”.
“Time has come to think what we have to do to correct the systematic failures due to which even the decree of the courts is also not implemented sometimes,” a statement issued by the NHRC quoted him as saying.
On Tuesday, at an event here to mark the 28th foundation day of the NHRC, Mishra had called for making the policing system more effective and independent so that “CBI investigation may not be needed”.
He had said that encounters done by police were “against the Constitution and a condemnable act” and efforts should be made to “liberate ourselves from this barbarity”.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Mishra also said that the NHRC and SHRCs are recommendatory bodies but have enough powers under the Protection of Human Rights (PHR) Act, which derives its strength from the Directive Principles of State Policy, to ensure that the rights of the last person and the poorest of poor are protected.
SHRCs may also extend their support to the NHRC in ensuring the implementation of various advisories issued by it to the government, he added.
Mishra said that the NHRC will write to various states to fulfil their statutory obligations towards strengthening SHRCs.
The NHRC-SHRC interface meeting was held to “explore common and new areas of collaboration for the promotion and protection of human rights”, a senior official said.
Its aim was also to share the best practices and activities of different SHRCs to work towards the promotion and protection of human rights in a more cohesive manner, the official said.
Both the NHRC and SHRCs were set up under the PHR Act.
However, SHRCs are autonomous state-level bodies and are not under the NHRC.
But, being the apex human rights body, the NHRC has been taking up the issue of strengthening SHRCs with the respective state governments so that they may be able to work more effectively for the fulfilment of their mandate under the PHR Act, the statement said.
During the five thematic sessions of the meeting, presentations were made on key issues of human rights, related laws, implementation mechanism and the present situation, the statement said.
These also included monitoring the implementation of advisories issued by the NHRC; status of implementation of the One Nation, One Ration Card scheme, the Food Security Act, 2013, and schemes and policies relating to informal workers; and integration of gender perspective, it said.
