The Hindu

MANGALORE, Sep 10: Conductors of private buses here can no longer look down upon and scoff at the students having travel passes as Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) is planning to take action against them.

S.R. Nayak, chairman, SHRC, has requested H.M. Bharatesh, Principal District and Sessions Judge, Dakshina Kannada, to write to the Deputy Commissioner, who is also the chairman of Regional Transport Authority, to convene a meeting of bus owners to sensitise their staff on this aspect.

Nayak’s direction came in the wake of students of St. Agnes College bringing the matter to his notice at an interactive session at the college on Sunday. Nayak was at the college to inaugurate a legal awareness programme organised by Dakshina Kannada District Legal Services Authority, St. Agnes College Human Rights Association and Mangalore Bar Association.

Students informed Nayak that they obtained travel passes by paying the prescribed amount. But the conductors did not behave with them decently. Their intention was to make students buy the tickets, he was told.

When Bharatesh enquired into the allegation made by the students association, he was informed that the conductors wanted to increase their daily collection as they would be getting a specified percentage of the collection as commission from bus owners.

In an informal meeting with presspersons, Bharatesh said, he would soon write to M. Maheshwar Rao, Deputy Commissioner, to convene a meeting of bus owners.

The Principal and Sessions court also functioned as district human rights court, he added.

Advice to police

Addressing officials including the police, Mr. Nayak said that the police should produce an accused person before the jurisdictional magistrate within 24 hours of arrest. The time of arrest should be clearly mentioned, he added. Mr. Nayak called upon the officials to respect human dignity. “We have to come out of our superiority complex,” he said.

Stating that corruption gave room for violation of human rights, he said complete protection of human rights might not be possible without curbing corruption.

Bharatesh said police should not play the role of judges. It was not the duty of the police to settle civil cases. Executive magistrates should be cautious while giving firing orders at times of riots as it was important to ensure that innocent people were not killed, he said.

K.L. Shivalinge Gowda, Principal Civil Judge (Senior Division), and Santhosh Kumar Rai, secretary, Mangalore Bar Association, were present.