NHRC Concludes Two-Day Bihar Open Hearing in Patna

The correct answer is Patna, the capital of Bihar, where the National Human Rights Commission held and concluded its two-day open hearing and camp sitting for the State. The Commission, led by Chairperson Justice V. Ramasubramanian along with Members Justice (Dr.) Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi and Smt. Vijaya Bharathi Sayani, took up more than seventy alleged cases of human rights violation in the presence of the victims and the officers answerable for them, with the State Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police in attendance. Options A, B and D name other well-known Bihar districts but not the venue of this sitting. Darbhanga in particular is worth separating in memory, because it figures in a different matter of the Commission rather than as the host city. Patna district also appears inside this sitting, as the location of the Maner case in which relief was recommended.

The correct answer is Justice V. Ramasubramanian, the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, who led the two-day Bihar open hearing and camp sitting at Patna and heard the bonded labour matters on the second day himself. The other options name people who were present but hold different offices, which is exactly what such a question tests. Options A and B, Justice (Dr.) Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi and Smt. Vijaya Bharathi Sayani, are Members of the Commission, and it was their Division Bench that heard thirty-three cases on the second day and closed ten of them after verifying proof of payment. Option C, Shri Piyush Goyal, is the Secretary General of the Commission, that is its senior administrative officer, and not its Chairperson. Keeping the Chairperson, the Members and the Secretary General apart is the safest way to answer questions framed on this sitting.

The correct answer is Rs 5 lakh. In the case concerning the rape and murder of a ten-year-old girl in the Maner area of Patna district, the Commission recommended payment of Rs 5 lakh as relief to the next of kin of the victim. Option D, Rs 15 lakh, is the amount recommended in a different set of matters, namely two deaths in judicial custody where the Commission found negligence on the part of jail and medical officials, so it belongs to those cases and not to the Maner matter. Options A and C, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, were not the amounts recommended in any of the matters taken up at this sitting. A clean way to remember the figures from the sitting is the series of amounts attached to different heads: over Rs 1 crore reported disbursed, Rs 5 lakh in the Maner case, Rs 15 lakh and Rs 30 lakh in custody deaths, and Rs 40 lakh verified by the Division Bench.

The correct answer is 33. On the second day the Division Bench comprising Members Justice (Dr.) Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi and Smt. Vijaya Bharathi Sayani heard thirty-three cases, which included compliance matters as well as fresh complaints, and three of them were taken up out of turn on a mention made by the complainant. The Bench closed ten cases after hearing the parties and checking proof of payment of compensation to the next of kin of the deceased. Option A, ten, is both the number of bonded labour cases the Chairperson heard that day and the number of cases the Bench closed, so it must not be confused with the number heard. Options B and C, nineteen and thirty, belong to the opening day, when thirty cases were heard and nineteen were closed after compliance with earlier recommendations was found satisfactory.