Records related to human rights violations in J&K locked up in room since state commission wound up: RTI reply

J&K, 13/2: 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 into a Union Territory in August 2019, according to an RTI reply.

An application under the Right to Information (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 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.