Victims of human rights violations to get speedy justice

Victims of human rights violations in the state will get speedy justice soon. The Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) will have six zonal offices across the state by the end of May.

Victims need not then come to Bangalore from far-flung Gulbarga, Bidar, Hubli or other districts to register complaints.

Justice SR Nayak, chairman of the commission, has been advising the state government to provide infrastructure to establish zonal offices for them in Bangalore Central, Mysore South, Mangalore West, Davangere East, Hubli-Dharward and Gulbarga. The government’s reluctance to follow his advice had forced the South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM) to file a writ petition seeking a directive to provide the required infrastructure to establish the six zonal wings. The then acting chief justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice AS Bopanna had directed the state government to implement the proposals in six months.  “We expect the government to provide the infrastructure by the end of May,’’ said Javid Pasha, secretary of the commission. Sources said the distance between Bangalore and other district headquarters such as Bijapur, Bidar and Gulbarga has become a stumbling block for justice Nayak and inspector general of police to reach those places after they receive complaints on rights violations.

“A person has to travel for more than 24 hours to reach Bidar or Bijapur. The police will have plenty of time to shift the people in their custody to other places by the time we reach the respective police stations,’’ said Justice Nayak. If the government implements the proposals, each unit of KSHRC will have one superintendent of police and three or four policemen to investigate the cases on human rights violations.

As of now, the commission has only one inspector general of police, two superintendents of police, two sub-inspectors and seven policemen (including two women police constables).

“The IGP post was vacant for the last four months. Today, Suneel Agarwal has assumed the office of inspector general of police,’’ said Pasha.

The commission has also sent a proposal to the state government to increase its staff from 106 to 196 to avoid any delay in clearing the pending cases.

“The KSHRC has received 31,139 complaints from July 2007 to December 2011. It has successfully disposed of 20,153 complaints. There are 10,986 complaints pending,’’ he said.