Maharashtra human rights panel issues notice to NCP leader Jitendra Awhad in assault case

The Maharashtra human rights panel on Thursday issued a notice to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jitendra Awhad in an assault case.

The Maharashtra human rights commission has issued notices to former state cabinet minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad, as well as three police officers, for allegedly assaulting a Thane resident accused of uploading a social media post in 2020.

The commission has asked that Awhad and three other police officers named in Thane resident Anant Karmuse's petition explain the allegations levelled against them.

The commission in the order said, "One material aspect emerges on record as to how the basic fundamental right of a citizen to express himself has been violated blatantly by none other than the custodian and guardian of the law as well as the elected representative of the citizen."

The commission further stated, "I am satisfied that the victim’s right to honour and dignity has been blatantly violated because he had the courage to condemn, through electronic medium—Twitter, the comments or the opinion of the electative representative Jitendra Awhad, sitting MLA of Mumbra Kalwa Constituency of Thane District."

Therefore, the commission said that "all these factors, taken together, justify the invoking of powers under Section 18 of the Protection of Human Rights Act against the then minister Aawhad and the police officials, for having violated the human rights of the victim—Karmuse."

Since neither the erring police officials nor the then minister Awhad were parties before this commission, therefore, by invoking powers under Section 16 of the Act of 1993, a show cause notice was issued to Jitendra Awhad by the commission and the three police officials named were also to explain and justify as to why the powers under Section 18 of the Act should not be invoked against them.

Section 16 of the Human Rights Act 2019 says that "Every person has the right to life and has the right not to be arbitrarily deprived of life. The Human Rights Act protects the right to life. The right not to be deprived of life is limited to arbitrary deprivation of life."