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NHRC found guilty of rights violation

Terming the dismissal from service of Rajender Prasad as a “blatant violation of human rights”, the court imposed a fine on the National Human Rights Commission.

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The country’s top human rights watchdog, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), found itself on the wrong side of the Delhi high court when the statutory body was deprecated for violating the rights of a constable by sacking him.

Terming the dismissal from service of Rajender Prasad as a “blatant violation of human rights”, the court imposed a fine of Rs1 lakh on the NHRC — which is headed by a former chief justice of India.

The court’s decision, though open for scrutiny by the Supreme Court, assumes significance as it finds the abrupt sacking of an employee a violation of his or her rights and also uses this logic against the NHRC.

Justice Kailash Gambhir, who delivered the order, also pulled up the NHRC for not hearing Prasad’s plea for his job to be regularised as he had served the commission for more than a decade.

“There has been blatant violation of the human rights of the petitioner (Prasad), who after putting in more than 10 years of service was thrown out on the grounds that his appointment was dehors (outside) the recruitment rules,” Gambhir said. “Such periodical extensions on service ruins one’s entire career and at times the employee gets deprived of many opportunities, maybe because of being overage or other factors, which otherwise would have been available if such an employee would have been shown the exit door at the earliest possible time.”

Recognising that the NHRC had failed to protect the rights of the petitioner “who will be thrown on the road to struggle again to search for a job”, the high court said a “cost of Rs100,000 is imposed (on the NHRC) for their inhuman act”.

Prasad said after working in the army as a hawaldar for 15 years, he took voluntary retirement and in 1996 joined the NHRC, which assured him that his post would be regularised; but he was employed on contract and, ten years later, on August 31, 2006, the commission terminated his services for no convincing reason.

The NHRC’s lawyer argued that the constable’s termination was not illegal and said there was no provision of re-employment in the commission’s recruitment rules.

But although the court penalised the NHRC, it rejected Prasad’s plea for reinstatement, saying many people were in queue for employment and equal opportunity should be given to all.
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