The Delhi High Court has issued notice in a plea seeking setting up of a Human Rights Court in each district of Delhi, and each court to exclusively have one Independent Human Rights Prosecutor.
The petitioner, Sarvadaman Singh Oberoi also challenged two notifications of November 2020 and June 2011 issued by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, stating that the LG was not authorised to issue the same. The notifications were pertaining to establishing human rights courts in Delhi in accordance with section 30 of the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA). The petitioner argued that the prerogative under section 30 of PHRA is upon the state government to set up Human Rights Courts in every district, and since the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi is a Union Territory, the Central government has the power to issue such notifications.
The court, however, found no substance in this argument and held that PHRA “is a Central Legislation for which the Parliament draws authority by virtue of Entry 13 of List I – Union List of the VII Schedule to the Constitution of India read with Article 246 of the Constitution of India. Merely because the enactment is a Central Legislation, it does not follow that its implementation can only be undertaken by the Central Government.” The court also referred to section 3(58) of the General Clauses Act which includes a union territory in the definition of “state”.
Therefore, for the purposes of Section 30 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, the expression “state” would include the union territory, said the bench. The court thus issued notice for specific prayers for setting up of Human Rights courts and for appointing one Independent Human Rights Prosecutor to examine and process claims of human rights offences for prosecution of appropriate cases before the Human Rights Court in each of the 11 district courts of Delhi.
In November 2020, Delhi Department of Law, Justice and Legislative Affairs issued a notification designating the court of Additional Sessions Judge-02 in each District as Human Rights Court.
Setting up of human rights courts in all districts was considered in the closing landmark judgment of DK Basu vs. State of West Bengal in 2015. The Supreme Court had stated, “There is, in our opinion, no reason why the State Governments should not seriously consider the question of specifying human rights Court to try offences arising out of violation of human rights. There is nothing on record to suggest that the Governments have at all made any attempt in this direction or taken steps to consult the Chief Justices of the respective High Courts. The least which the State Governments can and ought to do is to take up the matter with the Chief Justices of High Courts of their respective States and examine the feasibility of specifying Human Rights Court in each district within the contemplation of Section 30 of the Act. Beyond that we do not propose to say anything at this stage.”
The complete order may be read here.
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