NHRC: functions, powers, procedure and effectiveness

1. Functions: section 12

The Commission shall perform all or any of the following functions:

• (a) Inquiry, suo motu, or on a petition by a victim or any person on his behalf, or on a direction or order of any court, into complaints of (i) violation of human rights or abetment, or (ii) negligence in the prevention of such violation, by a public servant.
• (b) Intervention in any proceeding involving an allegation of violation of human rights pending before a court, with the approval of the court.
• (c) Visits, notwithstanding any other law, to any jail or other institution under the control of the State Government where persons are detained or lodged for treatment, reformation or protection, to study living conditions and make recommendations.
• (d) Review of constitutional and legal safeguards for the protection of human rights, and recommendation of measures for their effective implementation.
• (e) Review of factors, including acts of terrorism, that inhibit the enjoyment of human rights, and recommendation of remedial measures.
• (f) Study of treaties and international instruments and recommendations for their effective implementation.
• (g) Research in the field of human rights.
• (h) Human rights literacy and awareness through publications, media and seminars.
• (i) Encouraging NGOs and institutions working in the field.
• (j) Such other functions as it considers necessary for the promotion of human rights.

Clause (a) is protective and is exercised by the full-time Members only; clauses (b) to (j) are promotional and include the deemed Members (s. 3(3)).

2. Powers relating to inquiries: section 13

• Civil court powers (s. 13(1)) under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908: summoning and enforcing attendance of witnesses and examining them on oath; discovery and production of documents; receiving evidence on affidavits; requisitioning any public record from any court or office; issuing commissions; any other matter prescribed.
• Requiring information from any person, who is legally bound to furnish it (s. 13(2)).
• Entry, search and seizure of documents by the Commission or a gazetted officer specially authorised (s. 13(3)).
• Deemed civil court for offences such as contempt committed in its presence, which it may forward to a Magistrate (s. 13(4)); its proceedings are judicial proceedings for the offences of false evidence (s. 13(5)).
• Transfer of a complaint to the State Commission of the State from which it arises, if that Commission has jurisdiction (s. 13(6), (7)).

The Act cross-refers to the IPC and CrPC for these purposes; after 1 July 2024 the references are read as references to the corresponding provisions of the BNS and BNSS.

3. Investigation: sections 14 to 16

The Commission may use the services of any officer or investigation agency of the Central or a State Government, with that Government’s concurrence (s. 14(1)). The officer may summon persons, require documents and requisition records under the Commission’s direction (s. 14(2)), and must report within the time fixed (s. 14(4)); the Commission must satisfy itself about the correctness of the report (s. 14(5)). Statements made before the Commission cannot be used against the maker in any civil or criminal proceeding except for perjury (s. 15). A person whose conduct is inquired into or whose reputation is likely to be prejudiced must be heard (s. 16).

4. Procedure: sections 17 and 18

Section 17. The Commission may call for information or a report from the Central or State Government or any subordinate authority within a time it specifies. If none comes, it may proceed on its own; if the report shows no further inquiry is needed or action has been taken, it may close the matter. It may also initiate an inquiry directly.

Section 18 (substituted in 2006): steps during or after an inquiry.

• (a) Where the inquiry discloses violation, negligence in prevention, or abetment by a public servant, it may recommend to the government or authority: (i) payment of compensation or damages to the complainant, victim or family; (ii) initiation of proceedings for prosecution or other suitable action against the persons concerned; (iii) other action.
• (b) Approach the Supreme Court or the High Court for directions, orders or writs.
• (c) Recommend immediate interim relief at any stage.
• (d) Provide a copy of the inquiry report to the petitioner.
• (e) Send its report and recommendations to the government, which must forward its comments, including action taken or proposed, within one month or such further time as allowed.
• (f) Publish the report with the government’s comments and action taken.

Section 20: annual and special reports go to the Central and State Governments, which lay them before Parliament or the Legislature with a memorandum of action taken and reasons for non-acceptance of recommendations.

5. Armed forces: section 19

For complaints against members of the armed forces the ordinary procedure does not apply. The Commission may, on its own motion or on a petition, only seek a report from the Central Government, and then either not proceed or make recommendations. The Government must inform it of action taken within three months, and the Commission publishes its report. It cannot summon witnesses or investigate independently. Because “armed forces” in s. 2(1)(a) includes any other armed forces of the Union, the restriction is wide.

6. Limits on jurisdiction: section 36

• s. 36(1): the Commission shall not inquire into a matter pending before a State Commission or any other Commission duly constituted under law.
• s. 36(2): the Commission or a State Commission shall not inquire into any matter after the expiry of one year from the date on which the act constituting the violation is alleged to have been committed.

In N.C. Dhoundial v. Union of India, 2003 INSC 703, (2004) 2 SCC 579, the Commission on review held that the CBI had kept a person in de facto custody and directed disciplinary action. The Supreme Court quashed the order: the Commission, though an expert body, is a creature of the statute whose powers flow from the Act, and the one-year bar in section 36(2) is a limit on its jurisdiction, not a mere rule of procedure.

7. The Commission and the Supreme Court

• National Human Rights Commission v. State of Arunachal Pradesh, 1996 INSC 38, (1996) 1 SCC 742 (the Chakma case). The NHRC itself petitioned the Supreme Court under Article 32 for the protection of Chakma refugees threatened with forcible expulsion by a students’ union, after the State failed to act on its reports. The Court held that the State is bound to protect the life and liberty of every human being, citizen or not, and directed protection and processing of their citizenship applications. It shows the use of section 18(b) and the value of the Commission as a litigant.
• Paramjit Kaur v. State of Punjab, 1998 INSC 357, (1999) 2 SCC 131 (the Punjab mass cremations case). The Supreme Court referred to the NHRC the inquiry into the secret cremation of bodies by the Punjab police. It held that the Commission, acting on such a reference, functions as a body sui generis under the Court’s Article 32 jurisdiction and is not confined by the limitations of the 1993 Act, and left the remaining issues to the Commission as the appropriate body.

8. How far has the NHRC succeeded?

Achievements.

• It receives tens of thousands of complaints a year and has secured compensation for victims in many cases of custodial death, police excess and medical negligence in public institutions.
• Its directions that every custodial death be reported to it within twenty-four hours (1993) and its guidelines on encounter killings (1997) made the police accountable to an outside body for the first time.
• Its work on bonded labour, child labour, the right to food, mental hospitals, manual scavenging and the Chakma refugees, and its interventions before the Supreme Court, have changed policy.
• It has spread human rights education among the police, prison staff and students.

Limitations, each traceable to the Act:

• Recommendatory only (s. 18): it cannot enforce its findings, punish or award binding compensation. Governments may reject recommendations with reasons (s. 20).
• One-year bar (s. 36(2)), applied strictly in Dhoundial.
• Armed forces (s. 19): only a report from the Central Government, which leaves out the areas where complaints are most serious.
• Private actors are outside s. 12(a), which covers violations by public servants.
• Dependence on government for investigating staff (s. 11), funds (s. 32) and, after 2019, re-appointment (s. 6); appointments by a committee dominated by the government (s. 4).
• Composition dominated by retired judges, and frequent vacancies.
• The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), which accredits national institutions against the Paris Principles, deferred the re-accreditation of the NHRC in 2023 and again in 2024, citing concerns about independence, appointments and pluralism.

Conclusion for the answer. The NHRC has been useful as a watchdog and as a forum for the poor, who cannot litigate. It has been less successful against powerful violators because Parliament gave it the power to recommend, not to decide. Suggested reforms: binding compensation orders, removal of the one-year bar or power to condone delay, full jurisdiction over the armed forces, its own investigating cadre, and a more pluralist selection committee.

How this is examined

January 2026: powers and success (10 marks). June 2025 and February 2025: constitution, powers and functions (10 marks), for which combine this note with the previous one. For a powers question, sections 1 to 6 in order with section numbers. For an assessment question, section 8 with the cases in section 7.