National Human Rights Commission of India


The National Human Rights Commission of India is a Statutory public body constituted on 12 October 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance of 28 September 1993. It was given a statutory basis by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. The NHRC is the National Human Rights Commission of India, responsible for the protection and promotion of human rights, defined by the Act as "Rights Relating To Life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India.".

Functions of NHRC

The Protection of Human Rights Act mandates the NHRC to perform the following:
The NHRC consists of:
The sitting Judge of the Supreme Court or sitting Chief Justice of any High Court can be appointed only after the consultation with the Chief Justice of Supreme Court.

Chairman and members

The chairman of the NHRC is Justice H. L. Dattu and the other members are:
Ex-officio members:
A State Government may constitute a body known as the Human Rights Commission of that State to exercise the powers conferred upon, and to perform the functions assigned to, a State Commission. In accordance to the amendment brought in TPHRA,1993 point No.10 below is the list of State Human Rights Commissions formed to perform the functions of the commission as stated under chapter V of TPHRA,1993. At present, 26 states have constituted SHRC
State CommissionCityDate constituted
Assam Human rights CommissionGuwahati19 January 1996
Andhra Pradesh State Human rights CommissionHyderabad2 August 2006
Bihar Human rights CommissionPatna3 January 2000
Chhattisgarh Human Rights CommissionRaipur16 April 2001
Gujarat State Human Rights CommissionGandhinagar12 September 2006
Goa Human Rights CommissionPanaji2011
Meghalaya State Human Right CommissionShillong2013
Himachal Pradesh State Human rights CommissionShimla--
Jammu & Kashmir Human Rights Commission (As state has bifurcated into two Union Territories, this state commission has abolishedSrinagarJanuary 1997
Kerala State Human Rights CommissionThiruvananthapuram11 December 1998
Karnataka State Human Rights CommissionBangalore28 June 2005
Madhya Pradesh Human Rights CommissionBhopal1 September 1995
Maharashtra State Human Rights CommissionMumbai6 March 2001
Manipur State Human Rights CommissionImphal2003
Odisha Human rights CommissionBhubaneswar27 January 2000
Punjab State Human Rights CommissionChandigarh17 March 1997
Rajasthan State Human rights CommissionJaipur18 January 1999
State Human Rights Commission Tamil NaduChennai17 April 1997
Uttar Pradesh Human Rights CommissionLucknow7 October 2002
West Bengal Human Rights CommissionKolkata8 January 1994
Jharkhand State Human Rights CommissionRanchi2010
Sikkim State Human Rights CommissionGangtok18 October 2008
Uttarakhand Human Rights CommissionDehradun13 May 2013
Haryana Human Rights CommissionChandigarh2012
Tripura Human rights CommissionAgartala2015
Telangana State Human Rights CommissionHyderabad2019

Appointment

Section 2 Sections 3 and 4 of TPHRA lay down the rules for appointment to the NHRC. The Chairperson and members of the NHRC are appointed by the President of India, on the recommendation of a committee consisting of:

Controversy

A report concerning the manner of which the Shivani Bhatnagar murder controversy case was rejected, a case which involved high-ranking officials being implicated in the murder of a journalist, opened the organisation up to questioning over the usefulness of human rights commissions set up by the government at the national and state levels.
In mid-2011, the chairman of the NHRC, ex-Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan came under a cloud for allegedly owning assets disproportionate to his income. His son-in-law P. V. Srinijan, an Indian National Congress politician, had to resign for suddenly coming into possession of land worth Rs. 25 lakhs. Many prominent jurists, including former CJ J. S. Verma, SC ex-Judge V. R. Krishna Iyer, noted jurist Fali S. Nariman, former NHRC member Sudarshan Agrawal and prominent activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan, have called on Balakrishnan's resignation pending from the HRC pending inquiry. In February 2012, the Supreme Court inquired of the government regarding the status of the inquiry.

Human Rights Campaign's recommendations

NHRC held that 16 out of 19 police encounters with suspected Maoists in Guntur and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh, prior to 2002 were fake and recommended to Government payment of compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the families.