An Opinion from a friend:
NHRC: A disgrace to the term “Human Rights”
I came across this news item in Outlook India that tax-payer funded NHRC issued a show cause notice to the Police commissioner of Rajkot for the alleged delay in registering dowry harassment case brought by the now infamous Pooja Chouhan. The case that Pooja Chouhan wanted to register against her husband and in-laws was under IPC section 498a. IPC498a treats the accused as “guilty until proven innocent” and the accused citizens are summarily arrested without any investigation as this law is cognizable, non-compoundable, and non-bailable. Obviously, what Pooja Chouhan wanted to accomplish by making this complaint was to get her in-laws and husband arrested, so they face social humiliation. At the time of this novel performance, Pooja was already living separately from her in-laws, so there was no mortal danger to her life and limb.
The question I want to address here is not whether Pooja Chouhan was right or wrong in her disgustingly novel protest; or the guilt or innocence of her husband and in-laws. I am also not discussing here whether the police acted incorrectly in delaying the registration of FIR.
The point I want to address here is the NHRC’s hasty response in sending a show cause notice to the Police commissioner of Rajkot for the delay in registering the complaint from Pooja Chauhan. I am not suggesting here that NHRC should not send show cause notices to the police in cases of police inaction when human rights of citizens are violated. However in this case, this action was taken by NHRC knowing fully well that once an FIR is registered alleging harassment under section 498a, the police across the country are indiscriminately and summarily arresting every citizen named in the complaint and declaring them guilty and subjecting them to years of legal terrorism.
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Do the members of NHRC acknowledge there is a section of the Indian Law that declares a person guilty until proven innocent and such a law is against Human Rights?
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Do the members of NHRC acknowledge hundreds of thousands of summary arrests, including those of minors, are being made without investigation by the police on the mere registration of an FIR under 498a?
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Do the members of NHRC acknowledge whether they received hundreds of complaints of Human Rights Violations from the affected citizens who are fighting false criminal cases under dowry harassment laws?
What should have been a reasonable response from an entity (a tax payer funded at that) that purports to defend Human Rights, to an episode like this? They should have warned all the concerned government and law enforcement agencies to respect the Human Rights of the accused and not to jump to any conclusions until an investigation is completed.
Only when NHRC respects and defends the human rights of the accused citizens (falsely or otherwise) who are ready to be lynched by the lynch mobs (that often includes the media), only then the name Human Rights Commission would be apt.
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NHRC is a Farce to the system and society. It is a paid centre where where actual humans are left to die and harrased and the non-humans or animals are made to live in paradise. NHRC should change to NoHRC, non human rights commission. f**k off NHRC
in india is there a right to get a copy of fir to accused person?
Accused should get copy of FIR: experts
Our High Court Correspondent
Chandigarh, October 1
Former Rajasthan High Court Judge Justice J.C. Verma today remarked that there was an anomaly in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in so far as the need to provide a copy of the first information report (FIR) or medico-legal report (MLR) to the accused.
Speaking at a discussion on the right to have a copy of accusations, FIR and MLR, organised by the Punjab and UT Sections of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) here, Justice Verma said the accused should have a right to get a copy of the FIR/MLR whenever he wanted.
“These are basic documents that disclose why a person has been arrested or is to be arrested. Yet, it is unfortunate that the law has not set up any procedure to make getting these vital documents a right of the accused,” he said.
Mr Jagmohan Chaudhary, Member, Law Commission, Punjab, also talked of the urgent need for an amendment in the Criminal Procedure Code. He said this simple step would go a long way in simplifying the procedure for the grant of bail etc.
Advocate T.S. Sangha said though the FIR was a public document and could be inspected in the court, it was not given to the accused. However, the complainant was entitled to get the same, which was ironical. This violated Article 21 of the Constitution, he added.
Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association president Anmol Rattan Sidhu, while supporting the other speakers, said if need be, a PIL should be filed in this matter.
Advocate Navkiran Singh said the absence of a procedure of the supply of a copy of the FIR/MLR to the accused had given rise to corruption. “The only way to get a copy of these is to bribe the police or the staff of the magistrates,” he observed.