Delhi High Court overturns NHRC order awarding ₹5L to Rashid Raza family

The Delhi High Court on October 12 set aside a National Human Rights Commission order that had directed the Delhi Police to pay ₹5 lakh to the family of Rashid Raza, who the NHRC said allegedly died by suicide at a police station in December 2019.

Justice Amit Mahajan allowed the police's petition challenging the NHRC's April 19, 2024 decision, finding that the material before the commission did not provide an independent basis to conclude that police officials were negligent. The court emphasised that while the location of a death is a relevant consideration, it cannot by itself justify imposing liability on the police.

The NHRC had reached its compensation direction after reviewing the circumstances of the December 2019 death, but the Delhi High Court concluded that the record did not sustain a presumption of negligence simply because the death occurred at a police station.

The judgment therefore removed the commission's monetary award to Rashid Raza’s family and restored the legal position challenged by the Delhi Police. The court's reasoning, as reported, focuses on standards of proof and the limits of inferring fault from place of death alone rather than re-litigating factual findings about how the death occurred.

The case record, as described in reporting, ties the NHRC order to its April 19, 2024 direction and to the underlying incident in December 2019; the High Court's order was issued on October 12 and uploaded to its website.

The reporting does not provide further factual findings from the High Court about what evidence was or was not accepted at trial or in administrative proceedings, nor does it quote the NHRC's full reasoning in support of its earlier decision. The Delhi Police had challenged the NHRC direction through a petition that Justice Amit Mahajan allowed.

Separate reporting in this package notes an unrelated administrative action by Delhi Police on the same date: the force said it had modified its standing order and denotified Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site, naming Burari Ground, Ramlila Ground and CBD Ground as designated alternatives; that action was framed by the police as following a Supreme Court observation on October 9 about identifying suitable alternative protest sites.

The Jantar Mantar administrative change and the High Court decision on the NHRC order are distinct matters reported on October 12, and the sources do not link them causally.

The available coverage does not include detailed excerpts from the NHRC's April 2024 order or from the High Court's full judgment beyond the court's central finding about the insufficiency of inferring negligence from the location of death.

Reporting also does not provide independent verification of the underlying factual circumstances of Rashid Raza's death beyond the NHRC's characterization that the man allegedly died by suicide in December 2019.

The High Court's ruling therefore operates at the legal-review level, setting aside an administrative compensation order on the basis that the commission's conclusion about police negligence was unsupported as a matter of law.