annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

Chapter30
NHRC:
Clogged under operational
inefficiency
I. Overview
All the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) have
statutory limitations. Since the NHRIs are not expected to
supplement the judiciary and do not have enforcement
powers, the inability to implement their recommendations often
raises questions about their credibility.
The National Human Rights Commission of India is no
exception. It has its statutory limitations, among others, inability to
investigate abuses by the armed forces and the need to give prior
intimation to the authorities to visit any jail or any other institution
under the control of the State Government, where persons are
detained or lodged for purposes of treatment, reformation or
protection to study the living conditions of the inmates.
However, it is not the statutory limitations which has made
India’s NHRC more ineffective but its operational inefficiencies
such as non-registration of complaints, denial of the right to
information on the complaints, violation of the cardinal principle of
administration of justice by not providing response of the State to
the complainant in the course of considering the complaints, closure
of cases on frivolous grounds, exposing the complainants, flawed
investigation processes and lack of follow up mechanisms for
prosecution.