Important Interventions

Rs. 2 lakh to the victim of medical apathy; one doctor
and two nurses suspended
(Case No. 1902/12/46/2017)
T
he National Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognizance of media reports carried on the 7th September, 2017 that the doctors at the Tikamgarh District Hospital, Madhya Pradesh refused to treat a woman at an advance stage of pregnancy after they found that she was HIV positive. Instead she was referred to a hospital at Jhansi and pushed out of the maternity ward. The family begged the doctors to attend to her as they did not have the money to hire an ambulance to take her to Jhansi but they did not listen.
Even as the woman delivered twins outside the maternity ward, the hospital staff did not attend to them as a result, the twins died after half an hour on the 6th September, 2017.
Reportedly, the Civil Surgeon said that no negligence was found on the part of the hospital administration. The patient was infected with HIV and they could not take the risk of allowing her into the hospital's labour room and hence, she was referred to Jhansi.
The Commission issued a notice to the Government of Madhya Pradesh, through its Chief Secretary calling for reports in the matter. The Government of Madhya Pradesh submitted a report dated 25.09.2017, confirming the incident. One lady medical officer and two staff nurses were found gravely negligent and insensitive in treating the patient. They were suspended on 08.09.2017 and show cause notices were also issued to them.
On the basis of this report, the Commission held the incident as a clear case of violation of human rights for which it said the State Government was liable to compensate the victim. Having received no response to its notice to show cause why monetary relief should not be recommended to be paid to the victim, the Commission in the month of May, 2018 observed that presumably, the State Government had nothing to say in the matter and recommended that it pay Rs. 2,00,000/- to the next of kin of the deceased babies and to their mother.

NHRC to depute its fact finding team in the 17 cases
of encounters in Uttar Pradesh
(Case No.10824/24/0/2018-AFE)
T
he National Human Rights Commission, NHRC has asked its Director General (Investigation) to constitute an Investigating team of five officers including one SSP, two Dy. SPs and two Inspectors to make the fact finding enquiry in the 17 cases, wherein alleged encounter killings had taken place in Uttar Pradesh in the recent past. Out of these 17 cases, 15 were already registered in the Commission in which reports had been called for and the remaining two cases were also registered and the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, DGP, Government of Uttar Pradesh had been directed to submit reports.
The Commission has also directed the DGP, Government of Uttar Pradesh to give necessary directions to the concerned investigating officers to submit the status of investigation and documents pertaining to all the 17 cases of alleged encounter killings. These documents must particularly include (i) FIRs registered in the cases; (ii) relevant chargesheets; (iii) General / Daily Dairy register entry of the relevant Police Station on the day of incident; (iv) Wireless log book record of the relevant PS (or district police wireless HQ, where such log is maintained) of the day of the incident; (v) log book records of the day of govt. vehicles used by all police officers engaged in the said encounters; (vi) all Details Records (CDR) of mobile phones used by the deceased, any by all police officers engaged in the encounter (date range; one week prior to date of encounter to a week thereafter).
Further, the Chief Secretary and the DGP of the Government of Uttar Pradesh have been asked to submit all the requisite reports related to 23 cases of encounter mentioned in their report which was submitted in response to the notice of the Commission issued on 22.11.2017 after taking suo motu cognizance of media reports related to encounters in the State.
Meanwhile, the Commission has received another complaint from the families of nine victims of alleged fake encounters claiming that killings in fake encounters are continuing with impunity in Uttar Pradesh. The complaint says that according to official data, there were 1144 encounters in Uttar Pradesh from March, 2017 till January, 2018 in which 34 criminals were killed and 2744 were arrested.
It is also stated in the complaint that no protection, compensation or procedural remedies are available for the families of the victims. In 7 out of 9 cases, there were torture marks on the body of the victims. Allegedly, the pattern of injuries received by police officials in the encounters show similar trend of minimal injuries.
Allegations of police reprisal have been mentioned in the complaints stating that neither the families' nor witness accounts or statements were recorded or investigated; Rather they were threatened. FIRs had not been registered in these cases.
The Commission has also received a separate complaint by the members of the civil society organizations against the spate of extra judicial killings in Uttar Pradesh by police in the last year. Therefore, it has clubbed both the complaints, which, prima-facie, show that there might be chances of failure on the part of the State in adhering to the guidelines issued from time to time by the Supreme Court as also this Commission with reference to encounters.