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NHRC refuses to monitor bureaucrats under anti-riots bill -Bharti Jain
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), sought to be empowered by the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill to oversee action taken by the states to prevent and control communal violence, has declined to monitor performance of duties by civil servants under the Act, saying that it was for their superiors to do so. The human rights body also insisted that collecting information on communal build-ups and issuing advisories to the states was beyond its capacity or mandate laid down by the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA).

The national watchdog, in its comments on the Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2013, sought re-inclusion of Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes in definition of a group affected by communal violence. Though covered in the draft Bill cleared by the National Advisory Council (NAC), the SC/ST category was dropped in the version cleared recently by the Cabinet.

On Section 25 of the Bill that expects the NHRC to monitor performance of civil servants in preventing and controlling riots, the Commission said supervision of officials' work was the duty of their superiors, not of a Commission. "It would be impossible in practical terms for NHRC to do so. The Commission strongly urges that this section be deleted," it said. It also insisted that command responsibility apply not only to the armed forces, but all police officers, as "it is often at the level of SHOs that the dereliction of duty occurs".

Expressing its inability to receive or collect information of build-up or acts of communal violence in the states, the NHRC observed that this would require the resources and skills of organizations like the Intelligence Bureau (IB). "This is not a function of a Commission," it said and added that the NHRC should only be required to "take cognisance, suo motu, or on complaints or reports received" of communal offences.

NHRC also ruled out issuing advisories, saying that the responsibility for early warning was that of IB. "NHRC would be culpable for an outbreak of communal violence that it was unable to predict or prevent...this is a function that no national commission, set up to promote and protect human rights, can discharge," it noted.

In what could further agitate the state governments already crying foul over "anti-federal" provisions of the reworked Bill, the NHRC demanded that NHRC and SHRCs have the power to direct, and not merely request, a state government to order further investigation or reinvestigation where it finds bias on part of the investigating agency. The NHRC proposed that not only a communally disturbed area, but also an area prone to communal violence, be notified by the competent authority and such notification reported by the state government to NHRC within 24 hours.

Insisting that an SHRC enquiry be done only when entrusted by NHRC, the latter said that where the SHRC fails to start probe within 30 days of receiving directions from the national commission, NHRC shall enquire into the matter. The deadline proposed in the Bill is 90 days.

The NHRC has also opposed the requirement of prior intimation to the Centre or state government for visiting relief camps or jails for purposes of inquiry, clarifying that PHRA already exempts NHRC and SHRCs from the same.