A few years ago , a sitting judge of the Supreme Court Justice Mr .Arijit Pasayat said at a seminar that the terrorists were not human and thus were not entitled to claim human rights.
A few days ago, the .Chief Justice of Patna High Court Justice Mr Narsimha Reddy has been reported to have expressed a similar view regarding the elements who indulge in violent acts against the society. Their views are the result of their faulty socialization, and a cause for concern for our human rights. Their anti-human rights bias is so deeply ingrained that they did not take the pain to educate themselves even when they were elevated to the bench, and were trusted to act as a protector of human rights. Had they been solitary exceptions, there would have been no cause for anxiety, but our experience tells us that there are hundreds in the judiciary who share their prejudices and pose a threat to human rights of the people .
Since they did not seem to have cared to educate themselves, they expressed a view based on complete ignorance of human rights. The first thing to remember about human rights is that they are our birth right. They are our rights because we are human beings.We need no other qualification for their entitlement. The second important point to remember is that they are our 'inalienable 'rights, which cannot be legitimately taken away by the government.
The governments of all the States in the world are committed to protect and promote human rights and refrain from violating them . But the most relevant and crucial point to clarify is that human rights do not permit any person to violate anyone's human rights or to violate the legitimate law of the land with impunity.
Thus nobody has the right or liberty to act against the society with impunity. But at the same time anyone accused of any crime has the( human) right to be tried by an impartial and independent judiciary in an open court and to be punished according to the law if found guilty.
That is a right we all have regardless of the offence we may be charged with. What is the human right of a person charged with an act of terror or of a Maoist or some other insurgent charged with murder or some other heinous crime? It is only to be tried in a court of law and be judged fairly according to the law His human right does not consist in being allowed to commit crimes but only in being punished according to the law like any of us if found guilty He has the right not to be shot dead in fake encounter or killed in police custody. His human right consist in being dealt with like Nathuram Godse , who killed Gandhiji and Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani terrorist caught during the Mumbai terror attack and judged according to the law.

This is what our constitution guarantees , and qualifies us to be considered a civilized people.The Hon'ble judges are mistaken in holding that guaranteeing human rights to anyone is tantamount to guaranteeing 'Demon rights ( Danavadhikar ) to them.The goal of human rights is to create a humane world order free from the savagery and barbarism witnessed in Germany and elsewhere under Hitler's rule. Human rights are the means to create that humane world ,which can be achieved only by observing zero tolerance to inhuman acts and zealously protecting everyone's human rights.
prabhakar sinha
National President of PUCL

Hastakshep