No.
54- WBHRC dt. 12.9.95. In exercise of the powers conferred
by sub-section (2) of Section 10 of the Protection of
Human Rights Act, 1993 (No.1 0 of 1994), the West Bengal
Human Rights Commission hereby makes the following Regulations,
namely:
| 1.
Short Title and Commencement: |
(1) These Regulations may be called
the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (Procedure)
Regulations, 1995.
(2) They shall come into force with effect from the
15th day of September, 1995.
In these Regulations unless the context
otherwise requires :
(a) "Act" means the Protection
of Human Rights Act, 1993.
(b) "State Commission" means the West Bengal
Human Rights Commission constituted under
sub- section (1) of
section 21 of the Act.
(c) The "Chairperson" means
the Chairperson of the State Commission.
(d) "Member" means a Member of the State
Commission and includes the Chairperson.
(e) The "State Government" means the Government
of West Bengal.
The State Commission shall ordinarily
hold its meetings and sittings in its office located
at Calcutta. However, it may, in its discretion, hold
its meetings and sittings at any other place if it
considers it necessary and expedient.
| 4.
Periodicity of meetings: |
The State Commission shall ordinarily
have its regular sittings in the first and third week
of every month, excepting holidays. However, the Chairperson
by himself or at the instance of one or more of the
Members may direct a special sitting of the State
Commission to be convened to consider any specific
matter of urgency.
| 5.
Secretariat Assistance: |
The Secretary along with such other
officers of the State Commission as may be directed
by the Chairperson, or considered necessary, may be
present during the meetings of the State Commission.
The Secretary shall, in consultation
with the Chairperson, prepare the agenda for each
meeting of the State Commission and shall cause notes
thereon to be prepared by the Secretariat. Such notes
shall, as far as possible, be self- contained. Specific
files covering the agenda items shall be made readily
available to the State Commission for reference. The
agenda papers shall ordinarily be circulated to the
Members at least two clear days in advance of every
meeting, but when matters are set down only for hearing,
cause list of the day of sitting shall be prepared
and circulated. The State Commission may, however,
take up any matter for deliberation, which is not
included in the agenda of the meeting.
| 7.
Procedure for dealing with complaints: |
(1) All complaints received by the
State Commission shall be registered and assigned
a number.
No fee is chargeable on complaints.
(2) Ordinarily complaints of the
following nature are not entertain able by the State
Commission ;
(a) with regard to matters which
are sub-judice;
(b) which are vague, anonymous or
pseudonymous or (c) which are of frivolous nature.
(3) The State Commission shall not entertain
(a) matters alleging violation of
human rights after expiry of one year from the date
of the
act complained of;
(b) matters which are pending before
National Human Rights Commission or any other
Commission duly constituted under
the law;
(c) other matters which are outside
the purview of the State Commission.
(4) Every complaint, as far as practicable,
shall disclose all the relevant facts leading to the
complaint to enable the State Commission to take action.
The State Commission may ask for further information
or direct filing of affidavit in support of allegations.
(5) The State Commission may, in
its discretion, accept telegraphic complaints and
complaints conveyed through Fax.
(6) The Chairperson shall have power to constitute
bench (s) and distribute business of the State Commission
to such bench (s).
(7) Complaints received by the State Commission shall
be placed by its Secretariat before a bench constituted
for considering whether such complaints will be entertained/admitted
or not.
(8) The State Commission shall have power to dismiss
a complaint in limini.
(9) Upon admission of a complaint, the admission bench
shall direct whether the matter would be set down
for inquiry or should be investigated into.
(10) On every complaint on which a decision is taken
to either hold an inquiry or investigation, the Secretariat
shall call for reports/comments from the State Government/Concerned
authority giving the latter a reasonable time therefore.
(11) On receipt of the reports/comments of the State
Government/concerned authority, a detailed note of
the case shall be prepared by the Secretariat for
consideration of the State Commission.
(12) The directions and recommendations of the State
Commission shall be communicated to the State Government/concerned
authority and also the petitioner as provided for
in section 18 of the Act.
(13) The State Commission may, in its discretion,
afford a personal hearing to the petitioner or any
other person on his behalf and such other person or
persons as in the opinion of the State Commission
should be heard for appropriate disposal of the matter
before it and, where necessary, call for records and
examine witnesses in connection with it.
(14) Where investigation is undertaken by the team
of the State Commission or by any other person under
its discretion, the report shall be submitted within
the time fixed or such further time as the State Commission
may allow. The State Commission may, in its discretion,
direct further investigation in a given case if it
is of opinion that investigation has not been proper
or the matter requires further investigation for ascertaining
the truth or enabling it to properly dispose of the
matter. On receipt of the report, the State Commission
on its own motion, or if moved in the matter, may
direct inquiry to be carried by it and receive evidence
in course of such inquiry.
(15) The State Commission or any of
its Members when requested by the Chairperson may
undertake visits for an on the spot study and where
such a study is undertaken by one or more Members,
a report thereon shall be furnished to the State Commission
as early as possible.
| 8.
Minutes of the Meeting: |
(a) The minutes of each meeting of
the State Commission shall be recorded during the
meeting itself or immediately thereafter by the Secretary
or by any other officer as directed. Such minutes
shall be submitted to the Chairperson for his approval
and upon approval be circulated to all the Members
of the State Commission at the earliest and in any
case, sufficiently before the commencement of the
next meeting.
(b) The decision of the State Commission in every
matter undertaken by it shall be recorded in the form
of an opinion. Dissenting opinion, if any, shall also
form part of and be kept on record. Action shall be
taken on the basis of the majority opinion where there
may be any difference.
(c) Follow-up Action:
Unless specifically authorised, no action shall be
taken by the Secretariat of the State Commission on
the minutes of the meetings until the same are approved
by the Chairperson.
A master copy of the minutes of every
meeting and opinions of the State Commission shall
be maintained duly authenticated by the Secretary
and a copy of the minutes pertaining to each item
shall be placed in the relevant file for appropriate
action. Opinions shall be kept in the respective records
and for convenience, copies thereof with appropriate
indexing shall be kept in guard files.
| 10.
Report of Action Taken: |
Report of follow-up action shall
be submitted to the State Commission at every subsequent
sitting indicating therein the present stage of action
on each item on which the State Commission had taken
a decision in any of its earlier meetings, excepting
the items on which no further action is called for.
| 11.
Transaction of business outside the Headquarters: |
The State Commission or some of the
Members may transact business at places outside its
Headquarters as and when previously approved by the
Chairperson, provided that if parties are to be heard
in connection with any inquiry under the Act, at least
two Members shall constitute the bench of the State
Commission for such purpose.
| 12.
Authentication of orders and decisions: |
(1) Orders and decisions of the State
Commission shall be authenticated by the Secretary
or any officer of the State Commission (authorised
by the Chairperson) not below the rank of an Assistant
Secretary. .
(2) Copies of orders passed finally disposing of matters
by the State Commission shall be furnished free of
cost to the petitioner or his representative.
(3) Copies of any other document, which is not classified
by the State Commission as confidential, would be
expeditiously available to the parties in the matter
on payment of a fee of Rs. 5/- per page. The Chairperson
may, however, waive such fee in appropriate cases.
The State Commission shall submit
its annual report for the period commencing from 1
st April of the year to 31st March of the succeeding
year to the State Government as provided in Section
20 (1) of the Act. The original of the report shall
be signed by the Chairperson and Members of the State
Commission and appropriately preserved and a duly
authenticated copy shall be sent to the State Government
by end of May of every year.
The State Commission may submit such
special reports on specific matters as may be considered
necessary in terms of Section 20 (1) of the Act.
| 15.
Reports on Complaints and Inquiries: |
Every report to which Section 18
of the Act applies shall be sent immediately to the
concerned authority or State Government, as the case
may be, after the completion of the proceedings before
the State Commission and on receipt of the comments
of the concerned authority or State Government the
State Commission shall publish the report in the manner
provided in section 18 (6) of the Act.
| 16.
Printing of the Report: |
The Secretary of the State Commission
be responsible for the printing of the Annual Report
and Special Reports with utmost expedition and in
any case, not later than two months of finalisation
of the same.
The State Commission shall have its
own team of investigation to be headed by a person
not below the rank of an Inspector General of Police
and such team shall consist of officers and staff
as the State Commission from time to time may decide.
The State Commission may in any given case appoint
an appropriate number of outsiders to be associated
with the investigation either as Investigators or
Observers.
In matters, which are not covered
by these Regulations, it shall be competent for the
State Commission to make appropriate directions. The
State Commission may add, delete, amplify and amend
these Regulations from time to time.
