'Records related to human rights violations in J&K locked up in room since SHRC wound up'

New Delhi: Records related to alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, which were being handled by the erstwhile State Human Rights Commission, are locked up in a room since the panel was wound up after the state was downgraded to a Union Territory in August 2019, according to n Right to Information (RTI) reply.

An application under the RTI Act was filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak, who had sought to know the number of complaints pending before the commission as on October 31, 2019, when the Jammu and Kashmir Re-Organisation Act, 2019 came into force.

The reorganisation bifurcated the erstwhile state into two Union territories, which resulted in the winding up of autonomous bodies such as the State Human Rights Commission and the State Information Commission as Central laws took over.

Responding to Nayak's application, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has said it has no information related to the records of the erstwhile panel.

In response to his first appeal, the Jammu and Kashmir administration said after the reorganisation of the erstwhile state into two UTs, the Jammu and Kashmir Protection of Human Rights Act, 1997 (the State Act) was repealed.

"With the repeal of the Act, the general administration department wound up the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission, "it said.

"All the records of the commission were locked in a designated room at the office premises of the erstwhile Human Rights Commission, Old Assembly Complex, Srinagar. The employees of the erstwhile commission were deputed and

adjusted in different other departments."