The Supreme Court on Tuesday batted in favour of a Human Rights Commission for Delhi despite it not being a State and told the Centre that it should keep aside political differences and solve the issue till July or else the Court will step in to pass orders.
The direction to have a human rights commission in Delhi was ordered by the Supreme Court on July 24. As the Centre failed to comply, the Supreme Court issued notice to Centre on a contempt petition seeking reasons for disobeying Court’s direction.
Seeking modification to the apex court’s 2015 judgment, the Centre brought its top two law officers — Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar — to State that Delhi being a Union Territory cannot have a human rights commission as it’s the Centre which has jurisdiction on this subject.
This made the Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justices R Banumathi and UU lalit wonder, “If Delhi is not a State, then how does it have its own High Court, Public Services Commission, Women Commission, etc, when no other Union Territory has it. If Delhi is a Union Territory and not a State, there will be so many practices that will militate against this understanding.”
A-G argued as a via media, Centre proposes that National Human Rights Commission, which is situated in Delhi, can handle human rights complaints of Delhi, while for other UTs, the existing human rights commission in the nearest State can act as a Commission for UT as well. The Bench told Centre to be sensitive to human rights issues.
“NHRC has repeatedly said it does not want to be burdened with complaints of Delhi and has written to you to allow a separate commission in Delhi,” the Bench said, adding, “leave aside political dimension and consider the human rights aspect for the good of citizens.”
The Bench gave time till July for the Centre to resolve the issue of giving access to residents of Delhi to address their human rights violations. “look into the problem and report by July or else we will have to pronounce a decision,” the Bench said. Delhi Government informed on its part that a proposal to set up a three-member commission is pending with the Centre since January this year.