The National Human Rights Commission of India (abbreviated as NHRC) 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 (PHRA).The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993
as amended by the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Act, 2006 The NHRC is responsible for the protection and promotion of

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

, defined by the act as "Rights Relating To Life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

or embodied in the international covenants and enforceable by

courts A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accorda ...

in India".

Functions of NHRC

The Protection of Human Rights Act mandates the NHRC to perform the following: * Proactively or reactively inquire into violations of human rights by government of India or negligence of such violation by a

public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

* The protection of human rights and recommend measures for their effective implementation * Review the factors, including acts of

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

that inhibit the enjoyment of human rights and recommend appropriate remedial measures * To study

treaties A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...

and other international instruments on human rights and make recommendations for their effective implementation * Undertake and promote research in the field of human rights * To visit

jails A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...

and study the condition of inmates * Engage in

human rights education Human rights education (HRE) is the learning process that seeks to build up knowledge, values, and proficiency in the rights that each person is entitled to. This education teaches students to examine their own experiences from a point of view t ...

among various sections of society and promote awareness of the safeguards available for the protection of these rights through publications, the media, seminars and other available means * Encourage the efforts of NGOs and institutions that works in the field of human rights voluntarily. * Considering the necessity for the protection of human rights. * Requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office.

Composition

The NHRC consists of: The chairperson and five members (excluding the ex-officio members) * A Chairperson, who has been a Chief Justice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Court. * One member who is, or has been, a Judge of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

and one member who is, or has been, the Chief Justice of a High Court. * Three Members, out of which at least one shall be a woman to be appointed from amongst persons having knowledge of, or practical experience in, matters relating to human rights. * In addition, the Chairpersons of National Commissions viz., National Commission for Scheduled Castes,

National Commission for Scheduled Tribes National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) is an Indian constitutional body that was established through Constitution (89th Amendment) Act, 2003. History On the 89th Amendment of the Constitution coming into force on 19 February 2004, the ...

, National Commission for Women ,

National Commission for Minorities The Union Government set up the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Six religious communities, viz; Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains have been no ...

National Commission for Backward Classes India's National Commission for Backward Classes is a constitutional body (123rd Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2017 and 102nd Amendment Act, 2018 in the constitution to make it a constitutional body under Article 338B of the Indian Constitutio ...

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is an Indian statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005. The Commission works under the aegis of Ministry of ...

; and the

Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities The Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities is a Government of India agency under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. This has been set up under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection o ...

serve as ex officio members. 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 India.

Chairman and members

Arun Kumar Mishra, a former Judge of Supreme Court is current chairperson of the commission (11th chairperson of NHRC). The last chairman of the NHRC was Justice

H. L. Dattu Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu (born 3 December 1950) is a former Chief Justice of India, and the former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission. As the chief justice, he served for nearly 14 months, from 28 September 2014 to 2 De ...

, who completed his tenure on 2 December 2020. The other members are: * Mr. Justice M.M. Kumar * Dr. D.M. Mulay * Mr. Rajiv Jain Ex-officio members: * Chairperson, National Commission for Scheduled Castes * Chairperson,

Sardar Iqbal Singh Lalpura Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar/Sirdar ( fa, سردار, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other aristocrats. It has also been u ...

, Chairperson,

Rekha Sharma Rekha Shanti Sharma is a Canadian actress of Indo-Fijian descent, best known for her role as Tory Foster on ''Battlestar Galactica,'' and Ellen Landry on '' Star Trek: Discovery''. Career Sharma began acting career in her 20s. She has stage ex ...

, Chairperson, National Commission for Women * Chairperson,

* Chairperson National Commission for Protection of Child Rights * Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities

State Human Rights Commission

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 with 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 (with amendment act 2006). At present, 25 states have constituted SHRC

Appointment

Section 2, 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 The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murm ...

, on the recommendation of a committee consisting of: * The

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

(Chairperson) * The Home Minister * The

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

(Lower House) * The

in the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

(Upper House) * The

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

of the

(Lower House) * The

Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha The Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha (IAST: ) presides over the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha in the absence of the Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha (Vice President of India). The Deputy Chairperson is elected internally by the Rajya Sabha ...

(Upper House)

List of Chairpersons

Controversy

A report concerning the manner in which the

Shivani Bhatnagar Shivani Bhatnagar (died 23 January 1999) was an Indian journalist who worked for the ''Indian Express'' newspaper. Biography Bhatnagar's murder on 23 January 1999 became a scandal that reached into the top levels of Indian politics. Indian Po ...

murder case was rejected, a case involving high-ranking officials, 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 Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan (born 12 May 1945) is an Indian judge who has been the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India. He is a former Chief Justice of India. He was the first judge from Kerala to become the C ...

came under a cloud for allegedly owning assets disproportionate to his income. His son-in-law P. V. Srinijan, an

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

politician, had to resign for suddenly coming into possession of land worth Rs. 25 lakhs. Many prominent jurists, including former CJ

J. S. Verma Jagdish Sharan Verma (18 January 1933 – 22 April 2013) was an Indian jurist who served as the 27th Chief Justice of India from 25 March 1997 to 18 January 1998. He was the chairman of National Human Rights Commission from 1999 to 2003, and c ...

, SC ex-Judge

V. R. Krishna Iyer Justice Vaidyanathapuram Rama Krishna Iyer (15 November 1915 – 4 December 2014) was an Indian judge who became a pioneer of judicial activism. He pioneered the legal-aid movement in the country. Before that, he was a state minister and poli ...

, noted jurist Fali S. Nariman, former NHRC member

Sudarshan Agrawal Sudarshan Agarwal (19 June 1931 – 3 July 2019). was an Indian civil servant who served as Governor of Uttarakhand (2003–2007) and Sikkim (2007–2008).

and prominent activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan, have called on Balakrishnan's resignation pending from the HRC pending inquiry. In February 2012, the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

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.

References

External links

National Human Rights Commission Official Website

Judicial Economist
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Human Rights Commission Of India Human rights organisations based in India National human rights institutions Executive branch of the government of India Indian commissions and inquiries 1993 establishments in Delhi Organisations based in Delhi