The State Human Rights Commissions

In one line

Section 21 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 provides that a State Government may constitute a State Human Rights Commission to exercise the powers and perform the functions assigned to it under Chapter V.

What section 21 provides

21(1): a State Government may constitute a body to be known as the Human Rights Commission of that State.

21(2), as amended in 2019: the State Commission shall consist of a Chairperson who has been a Judge of a High Court and one Member who is or has been a Judge of a High Court or a District Judge in the State with a minimum of seven years' experience as District Judge, and one Member to be appointed from among persons having knowledge of or practical experience in matters relating to human rights.

21(3) provides for a Secretary as the Chief Executive Officer.

21(5): the headquarters shall be at such place as the State Government may by notification specify.

21(6): a State Commission may inquire into a violation of human rights only in respect of matters relatable to any of the entries in List II and List III of the Seventh Schedule, with a proviso that if any such matter is already being inquired into by the National Commission or another statutory Commission, the State Commission shall not inquire into it.

Two features matter and both should be given.

Constitution is discretionary. The word is may, so a State that has constituted no Commission is not in breach of the section. That is the same drafting defect as section 10 of the bonded labour legislation, and it produces the same result.

Jurisdiction is limited by the legislative lists. A State Commission may inquire only into matters relatable to the State List and the Concurrent List, so a complaint about a Union subject, or about a central police force, is outside it.

Why the State Commissions matter most to a disadvantaged group

Four reasons.

Distance. A complaint to a State Commission requires travel within the State; a complaint to the National Commission requires a journey to Delhi or a letter that may or may not be pursued.

Language. A State Commission works in the language of the State, and a complaint from a person who writes only in a regional language is more likely to be understood and acted on.

Subject matter. Police, prisons, public order, local government, land, agriculture, public health and education are State or Concurrent subjects, and almost every complaint on this paper arises from one of them.

And volume. The great majority of human rights complaints in India concern the conduct of State police, State institutions and State officials, which is precisely what section 21(6) confines the State Commissions to.