NHRC reduced to toothless tiger: SC

The Supreme Court has said the National Human Rights Commission has unfortunately been reduced to a “toothless tiger”.

If the guidelines laid down by it on custodial death were not adhered to, the respect and dignity due to the dead and the human rights of all will remain only on paper, it cautioned.

“If the people of our country are deprived of human rights or cannot have them enforced, democracy itself would be in peril,” a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit said.

The court asked the union government and all state governments to ensure the directions – issued by the rights panel formed in 1993 -- on payment of compensation and timely reporting of matters relating to custodial death and rape, videography of post-mortem examination were followed up by the authorities concerned.

“It is not as if the dignity of only living persons needs to be respected but even the dignity of the dead must be given due respect,” the bench said.

The court examined the role of the NHRC, while directing CBI probe into the encounter killings of over 80 people in Manipur, allegedly by armed forces and police personnel.

Staff strength cut
Going through a comparison chart of the workload between 1995-96 and 2014-15, the court noted that there has been 1,455 % increase in complaints but strength of the sanctioned staff in the NHRC has been reduced by 16 %.