West Bengal Post-Poll Violence: NHRC Constitutes Committee To Look Into Complaints As Per Calcutta High Court's Order

The Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Justice Arun Mishra has constituted a Committee to enquire into the complaints of post-poll violence in the state of West Bengal and has asked the committee to start its inquiry process immediately.This comes after the Calcutta High Court today refused to recall its June 18 order directing the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to constitute a committee for examining complaints filed by persons displaced during post-poll violence in West Bengal.The Committee is as under:-Rajiv Jain, Member, NHRC, head of the Committee.Atif Rasheed, Vice Chairperson, National Commission for Minorities.(Dr.) Rajulben L. Desai, Member, National Commission for Women.Santosh Mehra, Director General (Investigation), NHRC.Pradip Kumar Panja, Registrar, West Bengal State Human Rights Commission.Raju Mukherjee, Member Secretary, West Bengal State Legal Services Authority.Manzil Saini, DIG (Investigation), NHRC.The notification issued by the NHRC states that as per the directions of the High Court:-This Committee shall examine all cases of post-poll violence in West Bengal, complaints for which have already been received in the National Human Rights Commission or which may be received.The Committee shall also examine the complaints which have been received by the West Bengal State Legal Services Authority and also further complaints that may be received by the Legal Services Authority.The cases shall be examined, including by visiting the affected areas and shall submit a comprehensive report to the High Court of Calcutta about the present situation and also steps to be taken to ensure the confidence of the people that they can peacefully live in their houses and also carry on their occupation or business to earn their livelihood.The Committee shall also point out the persons, prima-facie, responsible for crime and the officers who maintained calculated silence on the issue.The 5-Judges Bench of the Calcutta High Court hearing the matter today said that the order was being passed after the State failed to inspire the confidence of the Court and it does not find any occasion to recall/ modify or stay its operation.The Bench comprises of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Binal and Justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen, and Subrata Talukdar."There were allegations that Police is not taking action and that is why we had to involve NHRC. You have not put on record a single complaint received by you. Your conduct in this case does not inspire confidence of this Court," ACJ Bindal orally remarked.BackgroundEarlier, the High Court had constituted a committee comprising of members nominated by NHRC, SHRC & SLSA to coordinate rehabilitation of displaced persons of Entally constituency.It had also directed the State Legal Services Authority to look into complaints of displaced persons who are being prevented from returning to their homes and take necessary steps for their rehabilitation.On a perusal of the Authority's report, the Bench recorded that the facts reflected therein are quite different from what the State has been claiming. "State from the very beginning had been denying everything but the facts as have been placed on record by the petitioners and also as is evident little bit from the report dated June 3, 2021 filed by the Member Secretary of the West Bengal State Legal Services Authority, are different."Under these circumstances and keeping in view that the instances sought to be projected by the Petitioners allege violation of human rights, it directed the NHRC Chairman to constitute a committee to examine the complaints.The Committee has been directed to examine all the cases and may be by visiting the affected areas and submit a comprehensive report to the Court about the present situation and also the steps to be taken to ensure confidence of the people that they can peacefully live in their houses and also carry on their occupation or business to earn their livelihood.

West Bengal Post-Poll Violence: NHRC Constitutes Committee To Look Into Complaints As Per Calcutta High Court's Order

Sparsh Upadhyay

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