SC for rights panel in five NE states

Agartala: The apex court has directed five NE states of Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland, besides Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, to set up human rights commission in three months.
The state home department officials said a Supreme Court bench of justices T S Thakur and R Banumathi passed the order on Friday setting aside a plea regarding the state’s financial constraints and difficulty in setting up SHRC.
“There is no real basis for the contention that financial constraints prevent these states from setting up their own commissions,” the court observed.
The bench asked the Centre and state governments to install CCTVs in all police stations and prisons and to appoint at least two women constables in every police station.
The direction was issued on the basis of a PIL by former judge of Calcutta high court D K Basu on prison reforms and unfilled vacancies at state human rights commissions in seven states, a home department official stated.
Referring to the judgment, he said the court reiterated that it was the statutory duty of the state governments to set up SHRC, absence of which makes access to justice by the victims of the human rights violation an illusion.
“It is a matter of regret that despite the National Human Rights Commission strongly and repeatedly recommending setting up of state commissions, the same have not been set up,” the judgment pointed out.
The court further described that the absence of commissions do not signify the fact that there are no violations of human rights in those states.
“The fact that most, if not all the states are affected by ethnic and other violence and extremist activities calling for curbs affecting the people living in those areas resulting, at times, in violation of their rights cannot be disputed,” the bench attributed.