NEW DELHI:The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has found that the Delhi government and police have not replied to a single notice issued to them based on suo motu cognisance in last one year within ‘stipulated time’.
The statistics states that NHRC issued more than 50 notices to the authorities in the national capital in last one-and-a-half-year between April 1, 2014 and August 25 this year, but they had not received replies within the given time.
Out of 50 notices, 32 were issued to Delhi government, while Central government bodies and Delhi police received 16 and six notices respectively. “The requisite report has not been received in stipulated time in any of the cases where notices were issued by the Commission to the government of NCT of Delhi,” said an NHRC official. As a result, only two could be disposed of by the Commission after consideration of reports received from the departments concerned of the Delhi government.
Citing an example, the NHRC said that last month a guest teacher in a government-run Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Delhi got annoyed with an eight-year old class III student for refusing to massage his legs. The teacher picked him up and threw him down on the ground, leading to a fracture in the child’s leg. “We issued a notice to the Delhi Chief Secretary KK Sharma over the alleged corporal punishment, but did not receive any reply within stipulated time,” the official added.
Recently, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that his government had initiated the process of setting up of a State Human Rights Commission, following a Supreme Court directive.
However, no step has been taken so far. Besides, the departments have not been sending reports to the NHRC on time, the official added.