( 1 ) SUBMISSION in this matter had closed yesterday with every one present at the bar unanimous on their opinion that in a matter which has now surfaced with such magnitude it would be the fittest step that it be referred to the National Human Rights Commission under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. The Court has accepted the contention made unanimously at the Bar.

( 2 ) THE origin of these proceedings rest on a media report highlighted in the TIME magazine, Asia Edition, 19/07/1999, at page 29. The correspondent, one Michael Fathers along with Menakshi Gangully, apparently made an on the spot enquiry and published an Article entitled "plight of the Living Dead : Indian Farmers declared deceased by unscrupulous relatives must prove they are alive to regain their land. " As the matter is now being sent by the High Court to the National Human Rights Commission, for its convenience the Article as published is being reproduced :"the Eastern Fringes of Indias Uttar Pradesh State are known as the bad lands, a place where hired killers can be bought for as little as $10 and peasant farmers eke out a living on plots as two ingredients - crime and a shortage of a