New Delhi, Sept. 9 -- The Supreme Court has strengthened the hands of human rights courts by ruling that criminal proceedings for offences arising from human rights violations need not be preceded by an inquiry or recommendation from the national or state human rights commission. A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said that the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 provides for two distinct and complementary mechanisms - the human rights commissions, which have an inquisitorial and recommendatory role, and human rights courts, which exercise judicial power to try offences arising from human rights violations. The court held that an inquiry or recommendation by a human rights commission cannot be treated as an "indispensable co...