NHRC takes up the cause of the "Living Dead" of UP

The Commission has taken up the case of deprivation of land of certain poor landholders of Uttar Pradesh. They were being exploited by people who, acting in collusion with revenue officials, had shown them as dead in the revenue records and grabbed their holdings – all this when they were actually very much alive. The case was taken up by the Commission at the behest of the Allahabad High Court on a reference to investigate the human rights violations of the landholders. A complaint was also filed before the Commission by Shri Lal Bihari of Azamgarh who had been shown to be dead and it had taken in almost two decades to make the authorities accept that he was in fact alive and hence his land could not be taken away.

Pursuant to the directions of the Commission, a notice was issued to the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh calling for a report. The report received from the government of Uttar Pradesh indicated that the Allahabad High Court had taken cognizance of an article published in the Time Magazine under the caption "Plight of the Living Dead" and directed the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Azamgarh on 21 July 1999 to gather information and monitor cases of persons who were alive but had been declared dead in the revenue records. It directed the District Magistrate of Azamgarh to publicise the fact so that people could apply for redressal. 90 cases were received and investigated by the CJM of which 30 cases were found to be true. The CJM also submitted a list of errant officers/officials

The Report of the CJM has examined by the Hon’ble High Court. On 9.1.2000, the Allahabad High Court had directed the Amicus Curiae to present this case before the National Human rights Commission.

The Commission had called for a hearing of the case in the presence of the representatives of the Government of UP, the Amicus Curiae, Advocate of the Allahabad High Court and the complainant. The Special Secretary Revenue, Government of Utter Pradesh and District magistrate, Azamgarh orally apprised the Commission that Action was being taken to correct the Revenue records wherever the land holders had been erroneously shown to be dead. The Special Secretary informed the Commission that such erroneous records would be corrected by 31 March 2001. The Commission has granted the Government of Uttar Pradesh two weeks time to submit a detailed report of the action taken so far not only in the District of Azamgarh but also in the other districts of Uttar Pradesh. This would also include the action taken against the errant officers/officials as well as the action taken to see whether the victims whose records had been righted actually got back their properties. The Commission's next hearing on this case will be held on 23 October 2000.