KOCHI: Despite the State Human Rights Commission’s (SHRC) resolve to curb human rights violations across the state, it has been struggling under the weight of 11,000 pending cases for the past five years. Started by the state government in 1998, the commission now deals with at least 5,000 cases each year, of which 1,500 remain unresolved.The cases either have been forgotten for long or are gathering dust whether it is the death of 23 infants at a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram or the manhandling of innocent citizens by public servants.Chairman of the State Human Rights Commission Justice J B Koshy said he was helpless owing to the shortage of staff. “We are reeling under an acute paucity of staff. When I joined the commission as chairman, there were at least 12,500 cases. I have solved at least 1,200 cases,” Justice Koshy said.An officer of the commission said the Finance Department is to be blamed for the mess. “There are vacancies and we had sent a letter to the department to sanction more staff. But they have not responded yet,” he said. "At present, even an Inspector General of Police, who is supposed to lead the investigation team has not yet been appointed,” he said.According to an RTI application filed by Human Rights Defence Forum general secretary D B Binu, the reason for the pending cases is the failure of various government departments in implementing the recommendations of the commission.“We are completely powerless when these issues go to court. We have only the power to recommend issues to the state government. If the departments are not interested, we cannot intervene in the issues,” an official said.
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