Mumbai: Over 50 human rights organisations and individuals have written to the Maharashtra chief minister seeking immediate appointment of chairperson and other members to the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission. The commission has been without a chairperson and members for a long time, and in their absence, the cases have continued to pile up.
The acting chairperson M.A. Sayeed retired on April 27. He had applied for an extension, but that is yet to be decided upon by the government. The state’s delay with the decision has rendered the commission dysfunctional. No cases have been looked into in the past month.
The letter signed by organisations and individual members associated with groups like the Homeless Collective, Anubhuti, Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), among others has pointed to the increasing human rights violations in the state and more so during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected communities and groups who are at the margins of society. It has put the human rights of the people in further peril,” the statement reads. They further state that people have been doubly bearing the burden of economic crisis and health insecurity, affecting their right to life, food, water, housing, basic amenities, health and access to medical treatment, among other issues.
“We have also witnessed during this phase an increase in discrimination, hate crimes, casteism, gender violence, islamophobia, and transphobia. In such a scenario, the complete absence of the State Human Rights Commission has resulted in the deterioration of human rights in Maharashtra,” the signatories have claimed in their statement.
Also read: Maharashtra Has the Dubious Distinction of Recording the Highest Attacks on RTI Activists
Even though Sayeed had been handling the work at the commission, a full-time chairperson has not been appointed since July 2018. The chairperson has to be a retired chief justice of a high court. Under Section 21 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, the commission should consist of a chairperson, one judicial member and one expert member. All three positions are currently vacant, apart from the position of the inspector general of police.
The last chairperson, Justice G.K. Bannurmath, retired in January 2018, and a member, Bhagwant More, retired soon after in July 2018. Sayeed in his tenure had disposed of as many as 18,000 cases.
The letter sent to the chief minister notes that as per the Progress Report 2020, the MSHRC has over 20,737 cases still pending.
“MSHRC, which is constituted to ensure the better protection of human rights in Maharashtra, plays an important role in addressing human rights violations and is crucial for our democracy and dispensation of justice. The functioning of MSHRC is even more essential in critical times like the pandemic, as it is an important recourse to justice for ordinary people who have been suffering. With the courts working on low capacity and taking only urgent and Covid related matters in the light of the second wave of the pandemic, the need for MSHRC to look into specific cases of human rights violations is felt even more,” the signatories have noted.