6 21995/2021/MCP The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 No. 10 of 1994* [8th January, 1994] An Act to provide for the constitution of National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commissions in States and Human Rights Courts for better protection of human rights and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. Be it enacted by Parliament in the Forty-fourth Year of the Republic of India as follows:CHAPTER-I Preliminary 1. Short title, extent and commencement.- (1) This Act may be called the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. (2) It extends to the whole of India: 1 [ * * * ] (3) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 28th day of September, 1993. 2. Definitions.-(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,(a) "armed forces" means the naval, military and air forces and includes any other armed forces of the Union; (b) "Chairperson" means the Chairperson of the Commission or of the State Commission, as the case may be; 2 [(ba) "Chief Commissioner" means the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities referred to in sub-section (1) of section 74 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (49 of 2016);] (c) "Commission" means the National Human Rights Commission constituted under Section 3; (d) "human rights’’ means the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India; (e) "Human Rights Court’’ means the Human Rights Court specified under Section 30; 3 [(f) "International Covenants’’ means the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 16th December, 1966 and such other Covenant or Convention adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations as the Central Government may, by notification, specify;] * Received the assent of the President on the 8th January, 1994 and Act Published in the Gazette of India (Extraordinary) Part II Section 1 dated 10-1-1994. 1. Proviso omitted by the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 (34 of 2019), Section 95, 96 and Fifth Schedule, Table-1. Proviso before omission, stood as under : "Provided that it shall apply to the State of Jammu and Kashmir only insofar as it pertains to the matters relatable to any of the entries enumerated in List I or List III in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution as applicable to that State." 2. Inserted by Act No. 19 of 2019, Section 2(i). 3. Substituted by Act No. 43 of 2006, w.e.f. 23-11-2006. 5