When India celebrates Human Rights Day on 10th December and Minorities Rights day on 18th December this month, the questions that need to be asked to the most critical institution responsible for enforcing these rights is this: Has the judiciary, in the recent past, done enough to protect the rights of those who are standing at the end of the line, those who are vulnerable, weak, fragile, historically sidelined and come from the lowest strata of the society?
The recently released Tamil film, Jai Bhim, reminds us of the custodial torture and death and traces the twists and turns of the judicial process as it unfolds in the courts. The film has been inspired by a real-life incident in which justice was ultimately secured. On this premise, the author submits how the judiciary can prove to be the sentinels of Human Rights.
Human rights are the basic and inalienable rights that every human being is entitled to simply by being born as a human. This is irrespective of their race, caste, religion, nationality, and whether they are rich or poor. They include certain basic rights like food, water, shelter, security, education, health care facilities and most importantly, freedom. These rights are necessary for the inherent dignity and development of an individual. But in our country, despite India being considered as one of the fastest-growing economies of the world, this is not quite the case. For many of our people, who are still languishing under poverty and illiteracy, having access to these so-called basic human rights is still a distant dream. People face discrimination based on their race, caste, and religion. Our economic growth leads to the creation of wealth, but there is a great amount of inequity in its distribution. Persons who are higher up in the social structure are reaping the benefits of economic growth. People lower down are unfortunately being left out. The rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer. The concept of inclusive growth is missing. Therefore, all this further adds to the human rights violation problem.
One solution to the above problem is to formulate policies and guidelines so that the rights of the underprivileged and the deprived section is protected and safeguarded. In fact numerous such policies and schemes have been framed by the government. But the fact of the matter is that all these policies and guidelines remain policies and guidelines only on paper and they have been more or less impotent in achieving the desired results for which they were framed. The ground reality is that these social welfare guidelines or policies have hardly benefited the poor, the underprivileged and the destitute. A classic example of this is whern economically disadvantaged citizens were deprived of their basic right to food. There have been instances wherein food for distribution to the poor and the downtrodden, either free of cost or at highly subsidized rates, was smuggled and subsequently sold in the open markets at a higher price for profits. This, in my opinion is a severe infringement of human right. This would not have been possible without the involvement and collusion of the state government officials or perhaps even the central government.
Then, we have this problem of honour killings happening in our country which is an absolute mockery of the phrase “human rights”. Young couples are being killed and butchered mercilessly by their own people for marrying outside their caste and against the wishes of their families. Lack of education, poverty and people not being aware of their rights are the prime reasons for such happenings but here again the government is doing very little to prevent such atrocities.
Therefore, in a scenario like this, I believe, that the judiciary is the final hope for the citizens of this country. It has an extremely important role to play in upholding human rights and safeguarding the interests of the people. Let us see how.
The Constitution of India provides certain fundamental rights to the people of this country like the right to equality, right to freedom, right against exploitation, right to constitutional remedies etc. Their purpose is to safeguard and protect the rights and interests of every citizen of this country, irrespective of their race, caste, religion, sex. To make these provisions meaningful and make sure that every citizen in this country benefits from these provisions, we need first to make people aware that these rules or provisions exist first. If people are unaware of them, having these rules/provisions will not serve any purpose. Education is the only method for spreading awareness about these rights. So the government has to take the entire responsibility of educating the people of this country. Billions of dollars are being spent on modernizing our defense forces but a tiny proportion is being spent on the more important sectors like education.
At this stage, the judiciary has to step in and assume the role of a watchdog. It has to oversee and ensure that enough resources are allocated by the government so that adequate infrastructure is created and people in every nook and corner of this country receive the benefits of effective education.
Furthermore, strict action needs to be taken against those involved in corruption and siphoning off of public funds otherwise allocated for educational purposes. Further, even if some people are aware of their rights, they often do not approach courts because they consider it a tedious, time-consuming, and expensive process. Therefore the judiciary must make itself more accessible to the people of this country, especially citizens in the rural and semi-urban areas. This can be done by increasing the number of courts dispensing justice at all levels and appointing more judges. This will also help reduce pendency of existing cases, which will restore the faith of the common man in the judiciary. Furthermore, cheap, effective and efficient legal services should also be made readily available to people who cannot afford good lawyers, who are often expensive to hire. Therefore, the judiciary should take upon itself the task of appointing lawyers, who will be on the government’s payroll, but whose job would be to help people in rural and semi urban areas get justice more efficiently and effectively. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in Arunima Baruah V. Union of India, (2007) 6 SCC 120, has held that access to justice is a human right. Therefore, a person who has a grievance, a forum must be provided for redressal thereof.
Public Interest Litigation is one of the most powerful tools through which basic human rights can be made meaningful to the deprived and vulnerable sections of the community and to assure them social and economic justice which the Constitution guarantees. Its greatest advantage is that any citizen of this country can file a Public Interest Litigation when he or she feels that the rights and entitlements of the backward section of the society are being infringed by the rich and powerful, especially when the backward section feel helpless about it. The Hon’ble Supreme Court, in State of Uttaranchal V. Balwant Singh Chaufal & Ors, (2010) 3 SCC 402, has stated inter-alia as:-
“Public Interest Litigation provides an occasion to examine whether the poor and the downtrodden are getting their social and economic entitlements or whether they are continuing to remain victims of deception and exploitation at the hands of the strong and powerful sections of the community, and whether social and economic justice has become a meaningful reality for them, or it has remained merely a teasing illusion and a promise of unreality, so that in case a Public Interest Litigation is found to be true, exploitation and injustice can be routed out and ensure to the weaker sections their rights and entitlements…”
In addition to this, the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, an autonomous statutory body, will also go a long way in preventing violation of human rights. It has been given the responsibility to review the safeguards provided under the Constitution or any law to protect human rights and recommend measures for their effective implementation. Every proceeding before the Commission is deemed to be a judicial proceeding. It has been given the powers to inquire into complaints of violations of human rights either suo moto or on a petition presented to it containing complaints of violation of human rights. Apart from this it also has the power to intervene in any proceeding involving any allegation of violation of human rights pending before a court with the approval of such court. Suppose the Commission is satisfied with the authenticity of the complaint. In that case, after recording the facts constituting the offence, it may forward the case to a Magistrate having jurisdiction to try the same. The Magistrate shall then proceed to hear the complaint against the accused as if the case has been forwarded to him under section 346 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
The greatest hallmark of our democratic system of governance is the presence of ‘Rule of Law’ i.e. supremacy of law. This rule of law goes a long way in ensuring that the rights of private citizens of this country are not infringed. One of the things that will further help cement the rule of law in our country and ensure that human rights are safe guarded is strict enforceability of judicial orders. Judicial orders must be enforced at all costs without any compromise in any form. The strict enforceability of judicial orders differentiates our country from some of our neighboring countries where the presence of a strict rule of law is questionable because of weak enforcement. Apart from this, the judiciary must be fiercely independent from the executive and the legislature and it should have a completely unbiased approach. One way of ensuring the independence of the judiciary is to make sure that the executive has no say in the appointment and removal of judges. The power, method and procedure of appointing judges should remain exclusively with the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court should make a conscious effort to appoint good judges who will uphold the sanctity of a judicial office with honesty, integrity, and diligence. This will also go a long way in ensuring that judges take a humanist approach and respect and preserve basic human rights.
To sum it up, numerous enactments, rules and procedures have been formulated and enacted to protect, safeguard and uphold the rights of citizens of this country. We do not need any further paper work in the form of more legislations and more rules. There are enough of them already in existence. We need to bring these to the notice of the people of this country and make them aware of the existence of these laws and regulations. Besides this, the judiciary should also make a conscious effort to make itself more accessible to the common man. This perhaps is the only way in which faith can be restored in the common man and resultantly, human rights can be upheld in a dignified manner. While I present this epilogue, I must also remind the common man that they should pursue their legal remedies in letter and spirit since hopelessness is the enemy of justice!
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