AG sounded on MHRC state
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 08 2025: The Advocate General, Manipur has been urged to apprise the High Court to make the Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) functional.

Lying dormant without a Chairperson, the Commission has as many as 338 pending cases, said Under Secretary-cum-Assistant Registrar, MHRC, Md Ziaur Rahman in a letter today to Dimal Kumar, Jr Government Advocate to Advocate General, Manipur.

The letter listed numbers of cases pending before the Commission, and requested the intervention of the Advocate General and the High Court to make the Commission functional by appointing the incumbent Member as Acting Chairperson.

The Manipur Human Rights Commission has a lone Member.

The letter highlighted that the office of the MHRC had written an official letter to the Commissioner (Law) on September 2, 2024 requesting it to issue necessary order authorising the lone Member to act as Chairperson until appointment of a new Chairperson as mandated under Section 25(1) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 .

The letter noted that during the vacancy of the Chairperson, the lone incumbent Member is unable to take up any case including those pending before the Commission sans implementation of the Section 25(1) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 .

Notably, the Commission has not been functioning in the absence of a Chairperson since August 2024 .

The last Chairperson, Justice Utpalendu Bikas Saha demitted office on his attaining the age of 70 years on August 24, 2024 .

The MHRC has so far disposed of a massive 1,300 cases.

As on April 8, 2025, the MHRC has 338 pending cases.

322 cases were pending before Justice Saha retired as the Chairperson.

16 news cases were filed after his retirement.

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