RAS question
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was established under:
Correct answer: (D) The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
The National Human Rights Commission of India is a statutory body established under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
Explanation
NHRC is not a constitutional body or a body created by a court direction; it is a statutory commission. The official NHRC page states that the National Human Rights Commission of India was established on 12 October 1993 and that the statute under which it is established is the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, as amended by the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Act, 2019. That is why option D is the precise answer. The standard exam trap is to confuse NHRC's rights-related mandate with a constitutional origin. Its role is to investigate human-rights violations or negligence by public servants, but its legal birth comes from the 1993 Act.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) A Supreme Court directive may influence rights enforcement, but the NHRC itself was established by statute, not by a court order.
- (B) A constitutional provision would make NHRC a constitutional body, whereas it is a statutory body.
- (C) An executive order is an administrative act, but NHRC's establishment is traced to the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
Concept
This tests the distinction between constitutional, statutory, executive and judicially created bodies. RAS repeatedly uses such questions because governance institutions often sound constitutional even when their actual source is an ordinary law.