National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairperson Justice Arun Mishra has said that the Commission does not need extra powers.
Speaking to India Legal in an exclusive interview, Justice Mishra held that 95 percent of recommendation made by the Commission was endorsed by the government.
As per the NHRC Chairman, the rights body has powers to initiate probe and an independent investigative team, which has cracked many significant cases in the past.
The statement of Justice Mishra gains significance in view of the demand made by many concerned parties for more teeth to the national human rights body.
In 2020, the then chairman of NHRC Justice H.L. Dattu had said that the Commission needs more power to become a ‘toothful’ tiger.
The Commission’s decisions are only recommendatory. The Governments are not bound to implement them. It is open for them to challenge NHRC recommendations in High Courts.
In view of such limitations, the demand for a more powerful NHRC has always been there, but the government has never heeded to them, even when they were voiced by a previous NHRC chairman.
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The Commission will celebrate Human Rights Day on coming Saturday (December 10). The event will be graced by President Droupadi Murmu.
Human Rights Day is celebrated every year on December 10, to commemorate the adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.