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The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed its administration to inform what steps has it taken to sensitize judges of the sessions court, which are designated to hear cases pertaining to violation of human rights.
A division bench of acting Chief Justice Nitin M Jamdar and Justice Arif S Doctor was hearing a PIL by advocate Asim Sarode, seeking establishment of functional courts to deal with human rights offences.
In December 2022, the high court noted that the law and judiciary department of the state government had filed an affidavit stating that Maharashtra, under The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, had come up with a decision in May 2001, which empowers sessions courts to take cognisance and conduct trials in human rights offences.
Advocate Rahul Nerlekar submitted that the state government had already designated more than one sessions judge in every district as a court designated to deal with cases of human rights and there are two such matters pending before such a court in the state.
Sarode submitted that merely two cases pending was not sufficient and there has to be an advertisement that such courts are designated as people are not aware of the same. He submitted that there are various districts, where human rights are being violated and the courts are refusing to hear such cases. The high court asked Sarode to point out such cases in the next hearing
The bench was told that in 2022, there were only two cases instituted and pending before designated judges in Aurangabad and Sangli. The high court questioned whether the low number of cases was due to lack of understanding on what would fall under the category of ‘human rights’ case.
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