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PUNJAB STATE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
(Procedure) Regulations 1999 as amended in the year 2007
(see section 10(2) & 29 of the Act)
CHAPTER-1
PRELIMINARY
1. Short title and commencement:-
i.
These regulations may be called the Punjab State Human
Rights Commission (Procedure) Regulations, 2007.
ii.
They shall be deemed to have come into force with effect
from 1st June, 2007.
2. Definitions:-
In these regulations unless the context otherwise
requires:-
a.
"Act" means the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, as
amended from time to time.
b.
"Code" means the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, as
amended from time to time.
c.
"State Commission" means the Punjab State Human Rights
Commission.
d.
"Complaint" means all petitions/communications received
in the State Commission from a victim or any other
person on his behalf, in person, by post, by telegram,
by fax, or by any other means whatsoever, alleging
violation or abetment thereof or negligence in the
prevention of such violation, by a public servant, of
all or any of the human rights defined in Section 2 (d)
of the Act, or the material on the basis of which the
State Commission takes suo motu cognizance.
e.
"Division" means and includes Administration Division,
Law Division, Investigation Division and Research
Division and such other Divisions in the Commission as
may be constituted by the State Commission.
f.
"Division Bench" means a Bench consisting of two Members
of the State Commission as constituted by the
Chairperson.
g.
"Full Bench" means a Bench consisting of three Members
of the Commission as constituted by the Chairperson.
h.
Full Commission means a bench of all the Members as on
the day when the proceedings are taken by the Bench for
consideration.
i.
"Registrar" means Registrar of the State Commission.
j.
"Regulation" means regulations framed by the State
Commission under Section 10(2) & 29 of the Act.
k.
"Secretary" means Secretary of the State Commission.
l.
"Single Bench" means Bench consisting of one Member of
the State Commission as constituted by the Chairperson.
m.
Words and expressions not defined in these regulations
shall, to the extent defined in the Act, have the same
meaning as assigned to them therein.
3. Headquarters of the State Commission:-
The Headquarters of the state Commission shall be
located at Chandigarh.
4. Transitory Provision :-
All complaints and matters pending as on the date of
enforcement of these regulations upto the stage of
listing for preliminary consideration shall be governed
by procedure obtaining prior to the commencement of
these regulations. In regard to complaints and matters
pending at other stages as on the date of enforcement of
these regulations, these regulations shall be followed
as far as possible.
Chapter-II
MEETINGS
5. Venue of the Meetings:
The State Commission shall ordinarily hold the meetings
in its office located at Chandigarh. However, it may, in
its discretion, hold its meetings at any other place if
it considers it necessary and expedient.
6. Periodicity of meetings:
The State Commission shall normally have its regular
sittings on the Judicial side at least thrice a week and
the meetings on the administrative and other issues
shall be held in the first and third week of each month.
However, the Chairperson by himself or at the instance
of one or more Members may hold a special meeting to
consider any urgent issue. Such meetings shall be held
within one week of the issue being brought to the notice
of the Chairperson.
7. Secretariat Assistance:
The Secretary, along with such other officers of the
State Commission, as may be directed by the Chairperson,
or considered necessary, shall attend the meetings of
the State Commission.
8. Agenda:
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.
Provided that when the Chairperson is of the view that
the option of the Members on any issue/item is required
urgently, such approval can be obtained from the Members
of the Commission by way of circulation. In that
exigency the agenda item need not be circulated to the
Members.
9. 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 conclusions of the Commission in every matter
undertaken by it shall be recorded in the form of an
option. Dissenting opinions, if given, shall also form
part of and be kept on record. Action shall be taken on
the basis of the majority opinion where there be any
difference.
10. Record of minutes:
A master copy of the minutes of every meeting and
decisions of the State Commission shall be maintained in
a Proceeding Book, duly authenticated by the Secretary,
and a copy of the minutes pertaining to each item shall
be added to the relevant file for appropriate action,
and authenticated copies thereof shall be kept in the
respective Division and for convenience, copies thereof
with appropriate indexing shall be kept in guard files.
11. 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.
CHAPTER - III
PROCEDURE FOR DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS/SUO MOTU ACTION
12. Complaints:
a.
Complaints may be made to the State Commission in
Punjabi, Hindi or English. However, the State Commission
may entertain complaints in any other language.
b.
No fee shall be chargeable on such complaints.
c.
The complaint shall disclose a complete picture of the
matter leading to the complaint.
d.
The State Commission may seek further
information/affidavit, as may be considered necessary.
13. Complaints not ordinarily entertainable:
The State Commission may dismiss in limine complaints of
the following nature :-
i.
Illegible;
ii.
Vague, anonymous, pseudonymous or unsigned;
iii.
trivial or frivolous;
iv.
barred under Section 36 (2) of the Act.
v.
allegation is not against any public servant of the
State Government;
vi.
the issue raised relates to civil dispute, such as
property rights, contractual obligation and the like;
vii.
the issue raised relates to labour/industrial disputes;
viii.
allegations do not make out any specific violation of
human rights;
ix.
matter is covered by a judicial verdict/decision of the
Commission;
x.
the matter is outside the purview of the Commission on
any other ground.
14. Receipt and distribution of dak:
a.
All communications in writing (by whatsoever mode they
are received) addressed to the State Commission, its
Chairperson, Members or other officers of the State
Commission, either by name or designation, shall be
received at the Receipt Counter of the State Commission.
b.
The Communications addressed by name to the Chairperson
or a Member shall be delivered to the addressee
forthwith, by the Receipt Section.
c.
The dak shall be opened under the direct supervision of
the officer in-charge of the Receipt and Despatch
Section, who shall get the same sorted out diarised in a
register containing particulars such as, date of
receipt, diary number, sender's name and district and
transmitted under acknowledgment to Law Division and to
the respective heads of other Divisions.
15. Procedure regarding institution, registration and
fixation of complaints:
The complaints received will be placed forthwith before
the officer in-charge of the Law Division who shall
ensure that all complaints shall be placed before the
State Commission expeditiously. The Complaints shall
thereafter be entered in the Computer System and a
complaint receipt number will be allotted to the same.
The complaints shall be put up before the State
Commission with utmost expedition and will be examined
in the first instance by a Division Bench. After taking
cognizance, the complaints pertaining to the cases of
custodial death, custodial torture, custodial rape and
illegal detention shall ordinarily be heard by a
Division Bench of the Commission and the rest of the
cases shall be dealt with by the Single Bench to which
the complaints are allotted by the Registry. The Hon’ble
Single Bench/Division Bench may pursue the matter, but
in case the Hon’ble Single Bench/Division Bench is prima
facie of the view that some recommendations ought to be
made by the Commission to the State Government or to the
authorities then that Bench shall refer the matter to
the Chairperson for constitution of a larger Bench for
final consideration of the matter.
16. Procedure regarding suo motu action:
(i) The procedure contained in this chapter shall
mutatis mutandis apply to cases wherein suo motu action
is taken by the State Commission.
(ii) Suo motu cognizance shall be taken by the Full
Commission. However, Member/Members can always make a
separate reference to the Chairperson asking him that
the matter be placed before the Full Commission or Full
Bench for Scrutiny/Examination/Cognizance. On receipt of
such reference, the Chairperson shall place the matter
before the larger Bench.
17. Registration:
a.
A common register shall be maintained in the Law
Division for entering in serial order the case number
with district Code and year of registration, the
corresponding diary number and the distinct to which the
incident relates in respect of each complaint ordered to
be registered. The complaint number assigned to the
complaint along with District Code shall be entered in
red ink on the top right-hand corner of the complaint.
b.
All complaints newly registered shall be placed before
the Commission for preliminary consideration as
expeditiously as possible but not later than seven days
from the date of its receipt. Provided that complaints
which require urgent consideration shall be placed
before the commission, as far as possible, within 24
hours of their receipt.
c.
File covers shall be got printed as in Form No.1.
Records relating to each complaint shall be kept in a
separate file cover arranging them chronologically in
the following order:
(i) Index in Form No II
(ii) Order sheet in Form No. III.
(iii) Complaint with annexure, if any.
18. Constitution of Bench(es) and placing of case
Files
a.
The case files in respect of cases shown in the Cause
List of the day shall be placed at least a day in
advance before the Benches to be constituted by the
Chairperson, along with a copy of the cause list.
b.
The number of cases to be included in the cause list to
be placed before each Bench (es) per day shall be fixed
according to the directions that may be given by the
Chairperson from time to time.
If any working day is declared a holiday by State, then
the cases listed for that day shall be taken up on the
next working day.
c. When the case is referred to Full Bench (larger
Bench) of three Members or Full Commission, the registry
shall get prepared the requisite number of copies of the
relevant papers for the use of all Members of the Bench.
19. Preliminary consideration, issue of notice, etc.
a.
If on consideration of the complaint, the State
Commission dismisses the complaint in limine, the said
order shall be communicated to the complainant in Form
No. IV and the case shall be treated as closed.
b.
If on consideration of the complaint or suo motu the
State commission admits/takes cognizance and directs
issue of notice to any authority calling upon it to
furnish information/report, a notice in Form NO. V shall
be issued, enclosing a copy of the complaint thereto.
Such notice shall be signed by the Registrar.
c.
If no time is fixed by the Commission for the return of
notice/furnishing of information/report, the time shall
be 30 days from the date of service of the notice.
d.
If, however, the Commission issues any other direction
or order, action shall forthwith be taken accordingly.
e.
If the report/information is not received from the
concerned authority within the given time, or received
late or not complete in all respects, the case shall be
placed before the Commission for further directions.
f.
Intimation of the order referred to in clauses(b) and
(d) shall be given to the complainant.
g.
The State Commission may ask the parties to tender
evidence on affidavits. The State Commission may further
orally examine the person whose evidence has been
tendered on affidavit, if it so considers necessary by
itself or on the request of the parties.
20. Recording of orders/proceedings:
a.
Ordinarily orders of the State Commission shall be
recorded in the order sheet, provided that the orders
which are lengthy shall be recorded on separate sheets
and appended to the order sheet. The P.S./P.A. attached
to the Member concerned shall make entry in the relevant
column of the order sheet mentioning the page numbers
and the date of the order. The order shall then be fed
into the computer.
b.
In cases where urgent action is required to be taken
pursuant to the order/proceedings issued by the State
Commission, the P.S./P.A concerned shall forthwith send
the file to the Registrar/Joint Registrar who shall give
suitable instructions in regard to the mode of
communication by telephone/fax/speed post/telegram etc.
and transmit the records to the concerned Section for
taking further action.
c.
On receipt of the information/report called for, a
detailed note in the form of a synopsis shall be
prepared by the registry in Form VII whereupon the case
shall be treated as ready for being placed before the
Commission for final disposal.
d.
When the Commission, upon consideration of the
information/report finally disposes of the case without
any recommendation, the case shall be treated as closed.
21. Summons:
(a) Whenever the Commission directs to summon:
i.
the complainant or any other person on his behalf to
afford him a personal hearing;
ii.
any other person who, in the opinion of the Commission,
should be heard for appropriate disposal of the matter
before it;
iii.
any person to cause production of records required by
the Commission;
iv.
any person to be examined as witness;
v.
any person whose conduct is inquired into by it;
vi.
any person whose reputation, in the opinion of the
Commission, is likely to be prejudicially affected;
a summon indicating the
purpose of summoning such person shall be issued as is
prescribed in the C.P.C..
(b) The case in which summons has been issued for
personal appearance of a person, shall be placed before
the Commission on the date shown in the summons for such
personal appearance.
22. Calling for investigation report:
(a) Whenever the Commission orders investigation to be
undertaken by its Investigation Division or by any other
investigating agency of the Central/ State Government as
provided in Section 14 of the Act, a copy of such order
alongwith copies of the papers relevant thereto shall be
furnished forthwith to such Division/Agency calling upon
it to conduct the investigation and submit its report
within the time specified in the order and if no time
is specified, within four weeks from the date of the
order.
(b) If no such report is received within the time given,
the matter shall be placed before the Commission
forthwith for further directions.
23. Investigation team:
The 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 of officers as
the Commission from time to time decides. The Commission
may, in any given case, appoint an appropriate number of
outsiders to be associated with the investigation either
as Investigators or Observers.
24. Incorporation of other documents received:
a.
Whenever any document is received in the State
Commission relating to the complaint registered, the
same shall be incorporated in the chronological order in
the concerned case file, duly Paginated by the Judicial
Branch. Appropriate entries shall be made in the order
sheet. The Judicial Branch shall make entries in the
index.
b.
Date relating to each case as required to be provided in
the register in Form No. VI and also information
relating to intermediary stages shall be fed into the
computer at every stage as and when the information
becomes available.
25. Steps after calling for comments:
(a) If no comments are received within the time allowed,
the case shall be placed before the State Commission
forthwith for further direction.
(b) If comments are received, the case shall be placed
by the Law Division before the State Commission with a
brief note obtaining the following information
regarding:
i.
acceptance of the recommendation in full or in part;
ii.
the action, if any taken or proposed to be taken by the
concerned government/authority;
iii.
the reasons, if any, given for not accepting the
recommendation and
iv.
the action that may be taken pursuant to the comments
received.
(c) On consideration of the comments received and the
note referred to in Clause (b), the State Commission may
pass such order as it deems proper.
26. Communication of Recommendations:
When the State Commission, upon consideration of the
inquiry report, makes any recommendation(s), a copy of
the inquiry report, along with a copy of the
recommendation(s), shall be sent with utmost expedition,
not later than seven days from the date of such
recommendation, to the concerned authority calling upon
it to furnish its comments on the report including the
action taken or proposed to be taken, within a period of
one month from the receipt of order/recommendation(s)
made by the Commission or such time as the Commission
may allow.
27. Recommendations of the Commission:
Every effort shall be made by the Chairperson/Members of
the Commission to arrive at a conclusion by consensus,
for making recommendations under section 18 of the Act.
It is, however, provided that the opinion of the
majority Members will be considered as recommendations
of the Commission and opinion of the minority
Member/Members shall, however, form part of the record.
If the opinion of the Chairperson and Members is equal,
both the opinions shall be forwarded to the State
Government/Authority for appropriate action.
28. Authentication of orders and decision:
1.
Orders and decisions of the State Commission shall be
authenticated by the Secretary or any officer of the
State Commission (authorized by the Chairperson) not
below the rank of an Under Secretary.
2.
Copies of enquiry reports or orders passed finally
disposing of matter by the State Commission shall be
furnished free of cost to the petitioner or his
representative.
3.
Unless any document is classified by the State
Commission as confidential, copy thereof would be
available to the parties in the matter on demand, unless
the State Commission decides otherwise. Even effort
should be made to provide the copies with utmost
expedition and in any case, not later than one week of
the date of request.
4.
The Commission on demand may supply the attested copy of
the final order /any other documents to an applicant who
applies in this regard to the Commission as per rules
framed under the Right of Information Act, 2005.
29. Publication:
When the State Commission passes order after inquiry
under Section 18 of the Act, the Registrar shall cause
to:
(a) prepare at the close of the each month a list of
such cases, furnishing particulars such as case number,
name of the complainant, name of the
government/authority concerned and the date of the final
order. A note shall be put below the list to the effect
that copy of the inquiry report etc. referred to in
sub-section (f) of section 18 is available for perusal
in Library of the Commission.;
(b) publish the list so prepared on the Notice Board of
the State Commission on the first working day of the
second week of every month.
(c) make available simultaneously to the Library of the
State Commission two sets of the documents referred to
in sub-section (f) of section 18 and further order, if
any, passed by the State Commission in each case;
(d) send simultaneously free of cost a copy each of the
documents referred to in clause (c ) to the complainant
or his representation.
30. Review:
(a) No party shall have a right to seek review of the
order/proceedings of the Commission.
(b) However, if any application seeking
modification/review of the order or proceedings passed
by the State Commission is received, the same shall as
far as possible be placed before the same Bench which
made the order, along with the case file and a brief
note on the points made out in such application and the
same shall be disposed of by such order as may be deemed
proper.
CHAPTER -IV
REPORTS
31.
Preparation of statements:
The Registrar shall cause to prepare such weekly,
monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly
statements/returns/reports in such form(s) as may be
prescribed by the State Commission from time to time.
32. Annual Report:
The State Commission shall furnish its annual report for
the period commencing from 1st April of the year to 31st
March of the succeeding year to the State Government as
provided in section 28 (1) of the Act. The original
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 Government
by end of May of every year.
33. Special Reports:
The State Commission may furnish such special reports on
specific matters as may be considered necessary in terms
of section 20 (1) of the Act.
34. Printing of the Reports:
The Secretariat of the State Commission shall be
responsible for the printing of the Annual report and
Special Reports with utmost expedition and in any case
not later than one month of finalization of the same.
CHAPTER -V
MISCELLANEOUS
35. Residuary powers:
As and when any matter which is not covered by these
regulations arises, it shall be competent for the
Commission to make appropriate directions and the
Commission may add, delete, amplify and amend these
regulations from time to time.
36. Mode of Communication:
Unless otherwise directed, all communications from the
State Commission shall be sent by ordinary post.
37. Consignment of records:
Records of all cases finally disposed of shall be
transmitted to the Record Section in the Law Division
after making entries in the manner as the Commission may
deem proper from time to time.
38. Period of Retention of Record:
(a) Unless otherwise ordered by special or general
orders of the Chairperson, the entire records of
disposed of complaints shall be destroyed after the
expiry of a period of two years from the date of final
disposal.
(b) However, the register in Form No. VI which contains
detailed information regarding each complaint registered
district-wise shall be retained permanently.
39. Destruction of records:
a.
The officer incharge of the Record Section shall
identify the cases, the records of which are ripe for
destruction and ensure that appropriate entries are made
in the register in Form No. VI regarding the date of
destruction. A list of such cases shall be maintained in
a separate book in the record section.
b.
Original documents produced by a party shall be returned
to it if a request thereof is received in the State
Commission before the due date of destruction.
c.
Destruction of the records shall be undertaken in the
month of July every year.
d.
The officer, incharge of Record Section shall cause to
destroy the records subject to such general or special
order/direction that may be given by the Registrar
regarding the manner of destruction.
e.
40.
Repealing clause:
f.
The Punjab State Human Rights Commission (Procedure)
Regulations 1999, notified vide notification
No.2/58/99-2HR/1953,dated 13.06.2000, are hereby
repealed.
FORM NO –I
{ See Regulation 17 (c) }
PUNJAB STATE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
(LAW DIVISION)
Case
No.___________
Classification:
No. of connected
cases,
SECTION
If any:
Name of
Complainant:_______________________________
SINGLE BENCH
DIVISION BENCH
FULL BENCH
District:________________________
Scrutiny Report : Form
No. 1
FORM NO.2
Date & Nature of
Disposal:
Other Information, if
any:
FORM – II
{ See Regulation 17 (c) (i) }
PUNJAB STATE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
(LAW DIVISION)
INDEX
Case No.
______________________ Name of the
complainant_______________
__________________________________________________________________________S.no.
Description of the Date
of Date of receipt
Page Nos.
document document
__________________________________________________________________________
FORM NO.- III
{See Regulation 17 (c) (ii)}
PUNJAB STATE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
(LAW DIVISION)
ORDER SHEET
Case No.________________________
Name of the
Complainant:_______________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Record of the steps taken
Order/Proceedings of the
(to be entered by the
office) Commission
____________________________________________________________
Date Step (s) taken
Form No.-IV
{See Regulation 19 (a)}
Case No. ___________________________/-LD
PUNJAB STATE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
S.C.O Nos. 20-21-22,
Sector 34-A, Chandigarh
(Law Division)
Dated-------------------
To
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
Sir/Madam,
Ref : your complaint
dated-----------------
Regarding-------------------------------------
Your
complaint referred to above has been registered as case
No------------- and the Commission, upon consideration
of your complaint has passed the following order :
“----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------“
Yours faithfully,
FORM NO.-V
{See Regulation 19(b)}
PUNJAB STATE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
S.C.O. Nos. 20-21-22, Sector 34-A, Chandigarh
(Law Division)
Case No----------------
Section-----------------
NOTICE
To
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
(Name/Designation and complete address of the authority
to whom notice is directed to be issued).
WHEREAS
the complaint received from (name and address of the
complainant) was placed before the Commission
on________________
AND
WHEREAS upon perusing the complaint the Commission has
passed the following order:
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
(here reproduce the
order/direction)
OR
FORM NO.-VI
(Pagr-1)
{See Regulation 24(b),38 and 39}
FORM NO.-VI (Pagr-2)
{See
Regulation 24(b),38 and 39}
FORM NO.-VI
(Pagr-3)
{See Regulation 24(b),38 and 39}
FORM NO.-VII
{See Regulation 20}
PUNJAB STATE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
Case
No.
Classification:
Code No.
SYNOPSIS
1.
Complainant
2.
Opposite Party
3.
Brief Summary of facts/allegations focusing
attention on the
issued of
human rights that arise for consideration
4. Action taken by the
Commission: (here state brief summary of the relevant
directions/orders of the Commission)
5. Brief summary of the
information/report received, focusing attention to the
response to the human rights issues arising for
consideration
6. Assessment of the
facts and circumstances,proposing the action that may be
taken.
Date
:
(Signature)
Jt.Registrar
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