25 years after human rights act was formed, state has no courts to hear cases

Mumbai High Court

Even 25 years after the Protection of Human Rights Act (1993) came into being, Maharashtra has not got a single court dedicated to cases of human rights violations.

In a recent RTI response, the state government has claimed that all Sessions courts in the state are also Human Rights courts. Yet, not one human rights violations case has ever been filed in these courts.

Speaking to mid-day, Advocate Rajeshwar Panchal, who filed the RTI last month, said, "My query was addressed to the state chief secretary seeking information about the implementation of section 30 of The Protection of Human Rights Act."

Rajeshwar Panchal

"In response, I received three letters, of which the reply from the chief secretary's office was that my RTI has been forwarded to the State Home Department and another letter from the home department stated that the RTI query has been forwarded to the State Law and Judiciary department, but both departments did not answer the query raised," said Panchal.

Finally, on April 4, the state Law and Judiciary department replied, saying, "The Sessions court in each district has been designated as Human Rights Court as per section 30 of the Protection of Human Rights Act. This is done by the state government in consultation with the Chief Justice and other senior judges of the Bombay High Court vide notification dated May 30, 2001."

Panchal said, "The said Act was passed in 1993, and Maharashtra implements section 30 eight years later [2001]. And, even after 17 years, there is no court to hear cases related to the Act. What's more, there has been no special public prosecutor ever appointed to represent victims of such violations." Panchal added, "Upon going through the contents of the Act, I found that there is no provision declaring that violations of human rights or contravention of any of the provisions of the act shall be punishable." Panchal believes that this seems to be a deliberate lacuna in the Act, as the authorities seemed fully aware that the victims of human rights violations could accuse men in uniform or any other government agency, which would have made the situation difficult for the government.