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Parliament passes Protection of Human Rights Amendment Bill

Before passing of the Bill, the members of opposition parties opposed the introduction of the Bill in the present form, saying it has many gaps and was not in conformity with the Paris principles.

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Home Minister Amit Shah speaks in Parliament on Monday
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The Rajya Sabha cleared the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on Monday amid huge uproar from the opposition parties after Union Home Minister told them that they should not doubt the government's intention.

"We have no bad intentions. The Chairperson will be appointed by a committee comprising of the Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Deputy Chairman of Lok Sabha and leaders of the largest opposition parties in both the houses," said Shah adding that the members should have faith in the wisdom of the committee.

The Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill 2019 amends the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 to include the provision that apart from the Chief Justice of India, a judge of the Supreme Court can also be the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission. As per the Act, only a person who has been the Chief Justice of India could be made the NHRC chairperson.

On the state level, the bill had proposed an amendment to enable anyone, who has been a high court judge, to be the chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission.

As far as members are concerned, the Act provides that two persons having knowledge of human rights can be appointed as members of the NHRC. The amendment bill proposed to extend appointment to three members, of which at least one should be a woman.

Before passing of the Bill, the members of opposition parties opposed the introduction of the Bill in the present form, saying it has many gaps and was not in conformity with the Paris principles.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said there are several gaps in the bill and it fails to address autonomy issue of the body. Besides, the Bill seeks to reduce the tenure of the chairman from existing 5 years to 3 years, he said, adding, the curtailment of tenure will bring inconsistency in its functioning.

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