HC takes serious view of organisations claiming to protect HR

Taking a serious view of organisations that claim to be working for protection of human rights, Madras High Court today posed a series of questions to the DGP, including "who are they, what is their background, what is their modus operandi, are they receiving foreign funds and accounting for them regularly."
Justice N Kirubakaran while hearing a petition by a private school, which faced trouble from a local "human rights organisation" in Tirunelveli district, who had earlier passed an order to DGP to file details about these human rights organisations, raised these questions today.
The Tamil Nadu government had in 2010 brought an amendment to the Societies Registration Act directing all the organisations having the term "Human Rights" to change the term.

There were complaints that these organisations, claimed to be working for protecting human rights, were holding "kangaroo courts" and also threatening some public authorities.
He directed the authorities to explain as to how many human rights organisations were functioning in the state and what are their activities. "Whether anti-social elements have also started functioning in the name of human rights organisation", he asked.
He also sought to know whether they were using the names of former judges and bureaucrats as office bearers of the organisation. The DGP informed the court that 170 cases had been registered and ST organisations claimed to be human rights forums.

Not satisfied with the response, the judge directed the DGP to submit replies by March 16.