No Human Rights’ Violations Addressed For Past 17 Months In AP
Under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, each state should have a Human Rights Commission with a chairperson and two members: Reports
KURNOOL: Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), which is based in Kurnool has remained non-functional from March 24, 2024, with no committee or any chairperson to address complaints related to violations of the human rights.
The previous government had invited applications for new committee members in December last year. But the process remains incomplete. As a result, the staff of the commission are without proper work.
Even when the YSRCP government came to power in 2019, it constituted the commission only in 2021, nearly two years later. The SHRC had originally been based in Hyderabad. It shifted to Kurnool in 2021 when the city got designated as the judicial capital. At that time, the commission had a chairperson, one judicial member, and one non-judicial member, whose terms ended in March 2024.
Under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, each state should have a Human Rights Commission with a chairperson and two members. The chairperson must be a retired chief justice or high court judge, while members can be serving or retired judges or experts with experience in human rights. They are appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of a committee headed by the chief minister and the speaker of the legislative assembly.
In March 2024, before the term of the previous members ended, the then state government issued a notification for fresh appointments. However, the process got stalled by the Model Code of Conduct that came into force when elections for the AP Legislative Assembly had been announced.
The new government, which took charge in June last year, issued another notification in November 2024. But the process has still not moved forward. Because of this delay, more than 10,000 cases related to violations of human rights have remained unresolved.
At present, for administrative purposes, the district revenue officer is acting as CEO and secretary of the State Human Rights Commission. However, in the absence of members, only routine activities are being carried out. Even posts, such as CEO, secretary and PRO remain vacant.
TDP politburo member Varla Ramaiah has already raised concerns about the staff crisis and the commission’s inactivity. But no concrete action has been taken so far.
Legal experts say the prolonged delay has left the state without a functional body to address human rights violations.
