Injustice cost votes in Punjab polls
By Jasmine Marwaha and Meenakshi Ganguly
Published in The Asian Age (Feb. 27, 2007)
Mumbai: As Punjab went to the polls to elect a new state government this month, political pundits attributed the lack of a clear Congress victory in exit polls to frustration with the rising consumer prices under the UPA […]
On October 9th, 2006, the Indian National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) effectively ended its consideration of the Punjab mass cremations case, arbitrarily compensating 1,245 victim families and establishing another commission of inquiry. Among its many failings in the case, the NHRC refused to investigate a single cremation, thus making any compensation arbitrary and inadequate. Moreover, […]
Of the 2000-plus illegal cremations in Punjab acknowledged by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in the Punjab mass cremations case, 814 bodies have yet to be identified. The NHRC appointed a Commissioner, retired High Court Judge K.S. Bhalla, for receiving evidence and conducting an inquiry to identify the remaining bodies, if possible, within eight months. In […]
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered the Punjab Government to pay Rs 2.5 lakh in compensation to each of the the families of forty-five people killed under police custody from 1984 to 1994.
On May 15, counsel for the Punjab Government appeared before the NHRC and stated that forty-five people had been identified as […]
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman AS Anand has announced that the Punjab government has identified 570 more victims of illegal cremation in the Punjab Mass Cremations case. The total number of identified people illegally cremated by the Punjab police is now 1,273.
824 bodies remain unidentified out of a total list of 2,097 victims. These […]
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered the Punjab government to pay Rs 2.5 lakh in compensation to each of 38 people whose relatives died in custody and were illegally creamted by the police. This NHRC order increases the toal number of people awarded compensation to 148; at least 2,097 people in Amritsar district […]
On November 1, Brad Adams, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, issued a letter to the National Human Rights Commission regarding its upcoming decision on the Punjab mass secret cremations case.
The letter urges the NHRC to order a full accounting of the systematic abuses that occurred in Punjab, determine liability after detailed […]
In May and June 2005, ENSAAF organized the Physicians for Human Rights and the Bellevue/NYU School of Medicine Program for Survivors of Torture to conduct a study of 127 families who survived the disappearance of a family member in Amritsar, Punjab. These cases draw from those pending before the National Human Rights Commission in the […]
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has held two hearings on the Punjab illegal cremations matter since its December 2004 hearing. The two hearings were held on May 5 and July 5. (Read the full article in the June Dispatch.)
During the May hearing, Justice Anand, Chairperson of the Commission, indicated that the July 5 hearing […]
In its 2002-2003 annual report to Parliament, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has requested more powers, including authorization to investigate cases that arise more than a year after their occurrence, and “supervisory” powers over other commissions.
The NHRC said it should be authorised to take cognizance of cases that sometimes arise after one year […]