Justice K.G. Balakrishnan completes his tenure as NHRC Chairperson (11.05.2015)

New Delhi, 11th May, 2015.

Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan today completed his tenure as the sixth and longest serving Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission. He had joined the Commission as its Chairperson on the 7th June, 2010 after his retirement as the Chief Justice of India.

During his tenure, Justice Balakrishnan was instrumental in charting out several new initiatives towards promotion and protection of human rights in the country and laid a lot of emphsis on increasing the outreach of the Commission to build awareness about human rights. Starting of 'Open Hearings' of the complaints on the problems of Scheduled Castes and atrocities against them in different States of the country was one of his major initiatives, among several others. He also re-started the practice of NHRC's 'Camp Sittings' in different States to dispose of pending cases in the presence of Government authorities.

Justice Balakrishnan was keen on giving justice in the matter of human rights violations to the people at their door steps and strongly advocated for setting up of Human Rights Courts in every district by the respective State Governments. Not only this, he also set up a Committee to study and clasify offences which could be heard by these Courts.

He attached a lot of importance to the media coverage on human rights violations. The Commission registered 599 cases suo motu on the basis of media reports from 7th June, 2010 to 29th April, 2015. During the period, with the increasing awareness about the human rights, the Commission registered a record number of 4,93,445 cases and disposed of 4,64,079 cases. There was a time during the tenure of Justice Balakrishnan as Chairperson, NHRC that the Commission, having the full strength of its Memebrs, brought almost at par the number of complaints registered and disposed of.

With recommending quick relief to the victims became a driving force during his tenure. Apart from recommending punitive measures against the guilty of human rights violations, an amount of Rs.68,97,70,172/- was recommended as monetary relief in 2242 cases. Out of this, Rs.41,35,09,000/- were paid in 1648 cases as monetary relief by the Government authorities from the 7th June, 2010 to 29th April, 2015.

Justice Balakrishnan promoted national level consultations with the different stakeholders on various issues of human rights to form consensus on recommendations to the Government. During his tenure, more than 40 such conferences, seminars and colloquium were organised by the NHRC.

The Commission also filed seven petitions/intervention applications in matters of human rights issues before the Supreme Court and High Courts during his tenure, which also included the issue of powers and role of the NHRC in respect of enquiry in two cases of encounter deaths. He strongly pitched in for the passage of Prevention of Torture Bill, 2011 by Parliament and also reviewed a number of draft legislations and policy documents.

He urged the Government for suitable modification in the Section 377 of the IPC to protect the rights of lesbians, gay, bi-sexuals and transgenders saying that "All people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be able to enjoy their human rights." He also set up an Expert Group to prepare some guidelines on Clinical Drug Trials and decided to intervene into the matters before Supreme Court. During his tenure, the NHRC commenced a study to develop a code of ethics for Indian industries to promote corporate-social responsibility.

For building awareness, a record number of 501 training programmes were organised during his tenure for teachers, para-military forces, police personnel, students and other sections of society. During his tenure, the Commission published 28 new books to promote awareness about various human rights issues. He instituted awards for encouraging original writing in Hindi on human rights issues. A short film award scheme to recognize creative work in the field of human rights was also introduced during his tenure.
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