NHRC to hold public hearing of human rights cases of five NE states

Guwahati, Dec. 15 (PTI): The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday said it will hold a two-day public hearing in Guwahati from Thursday for 40 cases of alleged human rights violations in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim and Nagaland.

NHRC Chairperson Justice Arun Kumar Mishra will inaugurate the ‘Camp Sitting and Public Open Hearing’ at Assam Administrative Staff College in Guwahati, NHRC Deputy Director (Media and Communication) Jaimini Kumar Srivastava said in a statement.

NHRC Members Justice Mahesh Mittal Kumar, Rajiv Jain, Secretary General Bimbadhar Pradhan and other senior officers of the Commission and state governments will be present, he added.

After the inauguration, 31 cases pertaining to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim and Nagaland will be taken up in a single sitting, the statement said.

“These include fresh complaints received in response to the Commission’s public notices for open hearing as well as some earlier registered cases, in which the requisite reports from the concerned state authorities have not been received,” it added.

On Friday, nine cases already in progress before the Full Commission will be taken up for consideration, Srivastava said.

“The cases will be heard in the presence of complainants and concerned public authorities, so that some decisions are taken on the spot for redressal of grievances of the victims of rights violations,” he added.

Thereafter, the Commission will hold a meeting with different NGOs and human rights defenders to ascertain the human rights situation and related issues in these five states.

This will be followed by a meeting with senior officers of all the five states to discuss the important human rights issues. Later, the Commission will brief the media about the outcome of the ‘Public Open Hearing and Camp Sitting’.

The NHRC has been organising such open hearings in different states of the country since 2007 and has so far held more than 40 such sittings with the objective of quick disposal of cases and to sensitise and create awareness about human rights at the grassroots.

The official said that due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Commission could not hold any ‘Camp Sittings and Open Hearings’ since February 2020, but with the improvement in the pandemic situation, it restarted the exercise.