Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari of Patna High Court on Wednesday invoked playwright George Bernard Shaw to stress the importance of human rights.

Quoting from Shaw's The Millionairess, he said: 'The law is equal before all of us; but we are not all equal before the law.'

Shaw's quote continues - Virtually there is one law for the rich and another for the poor, one law for the cunning and another for the simple, one law for the forceful and another for the feeble, one law for the ignorant and another for the learned, one law for the brave and another for the timid, and within family limits one law for the parent and no law at all for the child.

Addressing a gathering on the occasion of International Human Rights Day and the foundation day of Bihar Human Rights Commission at Adhiveshan Bhavan, he said: 'The very reason of celebrating the occasion is to create awareness among people on protecting human rights.'

He said human rights were not only the responsibility of the state and every individual in his/her own capacity can protect it. Justice Iqbal also stressed upon not denying others their rights.

To grace the occasion, Bihar Human Rights Commission chairperson Bilal Nazki, Lokayukta Bihar Justice C.M. Prasad, principal secretary (home) Amir Subhani, director-general of police P.K. Thakur, chief minister's security adviser Amrik Singh Nimbran and SSP Jitendra Rana were present.

Thakur expressed happiness over a drop in number of police custodial deaths in comparison to other states. According to latest data of National Crime Records Bureau and National Human Rights Commission, Bihar is ranked 14 in police custodial deaths. Maharashtra tops the list.