Pune: Human rights activists have slammed the State government for failing to set up a district-level human rights courts in the State, despite issuing a notification for the same in 2001. Human Rights Day is observed annually across the world on December 10 every year.
Last week, a group of students submitted a letter in this regard to the Principal District Judge, Pune district. “Every day there is a violation of human rights. Not establishing district level courts to deal with them is a serious issue,” said Harshal Jadhav and Deepak Chatap, who submitted the letter.
Adv Asim Sarode said, “The Human Rights Protection Act, 1993, envisages establishing human rights courts at the district level, with the appointment of public prosecutors. It empowers the State government to specify rules and procedures of working of these courts. The government had issued a notification in May 2001 to set up the courts but it has not been done in the past 17 years. On many occasions, we have taken up this issue with the State government, but it is reluctant to make a draft of those procedures. Our team has prepared the draft and submitted it to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the Law and Judiciary Department.”
Meanwhile, Adv Vikas Shinde said that he will sit on hunger strike on Monday outside the District Collector’s office to draw the government’s attention towards the issue.
