Victims of human rights violations across states might soon be able to appeal for their cases at Sessions courts, as a Supreme Court order passed on January 10, has said that Sessions judges should be designated as judges of Human Rights courts as well. Justice S A Bobde and Justice Deepak Gupta were hearing a civil appeal filed by Punjab State Human Rights Commission v/s Jatt Ram when the directive was passed. The apex court has also sought a reply from the chief secretaries of all states for failing to implement the earlier order, which asked them to set up separate courts for fighting human rights violation cases.

On April 22, mid-day had highlighted the ground reality through a story titled – 'The Act is in place, but, where's the court?' – based on the response of an RTI query filed by Mumbai-based lawyer Rajeshwar Panchal. In the reply, the Maharashtra government had claimed that the state's Sessions courts were Human Rights courts as well. However, not a single human rights violation case has been filed in these courts.