The Supreme Court has severely criticised the NHRC while quashing its directive to the CBI for initiating disciplinary action against four officers for allegedly detaining a telecom official illegally.A bench comprising Justice S. Rajendra Babu, Justice P.V. Reddi and Justice H.K. Sema yesterday gave a clean chit to the four officials — N.C. Dhoundial, Narayan Jha, P.K. Panigrahi and B.N. Singh — who were probing a case of corruption against telecom official A.K. Sinha in Ranchi.Sinha had approached NHRC, alleging that he had been illegally detained from March 25, 1994 to April 3, 1994, and that the harsh treatment aggravated the cancer he was suffering from.The NHRC, without giving an opportunity to officials to state their views, held that though judicial remand of Sinha was obtained by the agency on April 3, he was in de facto custody of the officials and recommended disciplinary action.The Commission, justifying its jurisdiction over the case, said the violation of human rights was a continuing wrong. Rejecting the theory of ‘‘continuing wrong’’, the apex court said ‘‘the Commission thus tries to clutch at the jurisdiction by invoking the theory of continuing wrong, which, as we held earlier, cannot be invoked at all.’’Justice Reddi said it would be a contradiction to say the arrest or detention beyond April 3 was in accordance with law.Without losing sight of the function of the Commission to protect human rights, the bench said NHRC should act within the parameters prescribed by the Act creating it and the confines of jurisdiction vested in it by the Act.
