The National Human Rights Commission was seized of the case on receipt of an intimation from the Superintendent of Jail, Rohtak, on March 14, '98.

A year later, the Commission is of the view that the death of the infant child was not `natural', as claimed by the Rohtak City Magistrate, but is attributable to malnutrition. And holding the jail authorities responsible for the unnatural death, the NHRC has passed directions to the Haryana State Government to pay a sum of Rs 20,000 by way of `immediate interim relief' to the victim's mother, Gyanwati. The relief is to be paid within one month period.

Subsequent to the intimation, the NHRC issued notice to the State Government and called for a report on the matter. The report was received from the Financial Commissioner and Secretary to Haryana Government, Jail Department brought out the post-mortemconducted on infant.

A report, prepared by the City Magistrate, Rohtak was also submitted. The Magisterial inquiry, under the Criminal Procedure Code, into the circumstances leading to the death of the infant included statements of its mother. The inquiry concluded saying the child had died a natural death.Since the post-mortem report was not legible enough and the cause of death was not readily decipherable, the Commission desired to have a legible copy of the post-mortem report.

Following the perusal of the report, the Commission noticed that it and other statements were in contrast to the City Magistrate's final report. While the magistrate said the death was natural, the post-mortem clearly stated that the cause of death was malnutrition, which found support from the findings of the examination, conducted on the various organs of the child.