Presentation on State Human Rights Commission

1. By PrasadVolvoikar
Guide : Prof Rohidas Mundhe

2.  The Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993 provides for
the creation of not only the National Human Rights
Commission but also a State Human Rights Commission at
the State Level
 The State Human Rights Commission is charged with the
protection of Human Rights or investigating any violations
that occur within their respective state.
 A State Human Rights Commission can inquire into
violation of human rights only in respect of subjects
mentioned in the State List (List-II) and the Concurrent
List (List-III) of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of
India.
 About 26 states have constituted the State Human Rights
Commission through official Notification

3.  The Commission is vested with the power to regulate its
own procedure. It has all the powers of a civil court and its
proceedings have a judicial character.
 It may call for information or report from the state
government or any other authority subordinate hitherto.
 The Commission is not empowered to inquire into any
matter after the expiry of one year from the date on which
the act constituting violation of human rights is alleged to
have been committed. In other words, it can look into a
matter within one year of its occurrence.
 The Commission may take any of the following steps
during or upon the completion of an inquiry

4.  It may recommend the state government or
authority to make payment of compensation or
damages to the victim.
 It may recommend to the state government or
authority the initiation of proceedings for
prosecution or any other action against the state
government.
 It may recommend the state government or
authority for the grant of immediate interim
relief to the victim.
 It may approach the Supreme Court or state high
court for the necessary direction, order or writs.

5.  The Commission submits its annual or special reports to the state
government.These reports are laid before the state legislature,
along with a memorandum of action taken on the
recommendations of the Commission and the reasons for non-
acceptance of any of such recommendations.
 Human Rights CourtsThe Protection of Human Rights Act (1993)
also provides for the establishment of a Human Rights Court in
every district for the speedy trial of violation of human
rights.These courts can be set up by the state government only
with the occurrence of the Chief Justice of the High Court of that
state.For every Human Rights Court, the state government
specifies a public prosecutor or appoints an advocate (who has
practiced as a special prosecutor)

6.  To identified the Human Rights meaning and
its origin.
 To understand the evolution of Human
Rights.
 To trace out establishment of National and
State Human Rights Commission
 To evaluate the working of Goa State Human
Rights Commission.
 To offer certain suggestion for improvement
of Goa State Human Rights Commission.

7.  The Commission failed to achieve its
objectives due to Government apathy
towards appointing the members of the
commission.
 Non appointment of chairperson seriously
hampers the functioning of Sate Human
Rights Commission.
 Lack of awareness among the people of Goa,
resulting in less number of complaint filed in
the commission

8. The present study contains partially doctrinal and
partially empirical study: -
 Doctrinal study will include books on human
rights bare act articles, reports status, study of
cases by NHRC and SHRC, internet websites will
be referred to.
 Empirical study will include the use of questioner
to produce information from various public
officers, members of the Human rights
commission, interviews with the practicing
advocate and complainant.

9. Years No. of Complaints
received/register
No. of complaints disposed
off
2011-12 26 13
2012-13 87 57
2013-14 315 156
2014-15 292 149
2015-16 104 137
2016-17 378 266
2017-18 275 395
2018-19 290 204
2019-20 280 230
2020-21 273 220

10. 0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
No. of Complaints Disposed off
No. of Complaints Received

11. Public Awareness
Yes
No
Source of Awareness
Friends
Newspaper
Website
Any other
specify
Aweness of Purpose of SHRC
Yes
No
AwarenessReme
dy of HRC
Yes
No

12. Redressal of Grievance
Yes
No
Relief given HRC
Yes
No
Better to Approac SHRC
Yes
No
Essential to Bring
Transparency
Yes
No

13. Necessity of SHRC
Yes
No
Less Members affect functioning
Yes
No
No Comments
Report making or ActionTaking
Yes
No

14. Make SHRC Report binding on Govt
Yes
No
Non appointment of Chairperson Affecting
Functioning
Yes
No
No Comments

15.  With regard to first hypothesis the data analyses indicates that the commission
failed to achieve its objective towards government for appointing the members
of the commission, and its provision is not yet hundred percent. Also data
available is not sufficient to reach definite conclusion, this may be due to the fact
that commission is comparatively very new as compared to other state
commission.
 With regard to second hypothesis, the data gathered so far point to the fact that
non-appointment of a chairperson is a serious problem encountered by the
GSHRC and hence more data is needed to reach a more definitive conclusion.
The fact that no full-time chairman has been appointed by the Government.
After much correspondence with the Government, one member was appointed
as acting chairperson. At present only one member handle the cases.
 With regard to third hypothesis, the data gathered so far to the fact that since its
inception till today it has received a very huge number of complaints showing an
increasing trend. It suggests that people have complete faith and full satisfaction
in its functioning methods. Because of a very large number of complaints
received by the commission and for some other reasons, some of the application
remain pending but are immediately cleared in the next year.

16.  The following suggestions are:-
 It is true that the 50 % of the people in the society have become aware
about the human rights, but that is not just enough.The awareness
should reach to every corner of the society and to be more for the
purpose of educating the public about the importance of Human Rights
Commission.Therefore, house to house canvassing would be a proper
mode.This could be achieved by organising programmes and conducting
seminars that would generate awareness.
 With regards to generating the awareness about human rights, public
media, likeTVs, newspaper, etc. May be utilized for spreading the
information by advertising etc.This would surly help in creating
awareness amongst the public.
 Governments at various levels amend to make the Human Rights
Commission more vibrant and powerful.This could be done by once
giving them full power as provided under the other laws. Presently, the
Human Rights Commission are only send reports to the Governments.
Therefore, suitable amendment are required to make the
recommendation mandatory.

17.  It is obvious that non-appointment of the chairperson and other
members immediate after their retirement or otherwise hampers
the functioning of the commission.Therefore, it is expedient to fill
up the vacancies in the commission on priority basis so as to allow
its smooth functioning.
 It is also necessary that the complaints received by the
commission are disposed off summarily, so that the people will
not loses faith in the Human Rights Commission.
 Human rights standing committees may be constituted in all
Panchayats, Muncipalities and Corporations.
 The Government may take immediate steps to implement the
recommendations of the Goa State Human Rights Commission.

18.  NonVolunteering of persons in survey
 Covid Pandemic Restrictions in conduct of
surevey
 Taking Neutral position in survey
 Staff of Commission giving poor response

19.  The End